Genome Chapter 5

Assignment: 
Blog on Fifth Genome

In Genome Chapter 5, Matt Ridley talks about chromosome five and its relation to the lung disease, asthma.  This is one gene that may or may not be passed down from parents but instead there are many theories to explain this occurrence. For example, some people believe that the main reason for the high raising number of asthma patients is the environment such as the pollution or excessive hygiene.  "Asthma, in other words, is much more like real life."  I agree with the author on this quote because millions of people around the world have suffered or are currently suffering from asthma.  It is like real life because there are many ways a person can get asthma even if they eat healthy foods or are born healthy and live in safe environment. I find it very interesting that "children with elder siblings are less likely to get asthma, perhaps because their siblings bring dust into the house" and "appear to inherit it from allergic mothers, but rarely from their fathers."  It's strange that men tend to "lose" their asthma symptoms as they grow older but for the women its totally the opposite.  Women are more likely to develop asthma in their early twenties and do not outgrow this disease.  There are a handful of genes that can be "asthma genes" yet there is not one that can explain all the cases of asthma.  That is why chromosome five is not the only human chromosome with genes associated with asthma but it is the main one.