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Genes and the fertility of ethnically Tibetan women at high altitude in Nepal
Tibetans have lived at altitudes above 3000m (~10,000') for at least 10,000 years and consequently have distinctive biological traits including unexpectedly low levels of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen. Genes accounting for such hemoglobin levels were recently identified and occur at uniquely high frequency among Tibetans. The likely mechanism for this high frequency is higher fertility and child survival for those people with the low-hemoglobin forms of those genes.
This research uses a biocultural approach to test the hypothesis that Tibetan women at high altitude in Nepal with the low-hemoglobin variants of the genes have more surviving children than those with the other variants. Researchers will interview a total of 1350 women of Tibetan ethnicity residing in villages located at 3000m or higher in the Gorkha and Mustang districts of, Nepal, both of which border the Tibet Autonomous Region, China.
Women selected to participate in this study will be 40 years of age or older, most of whom having completed their reproductive careers. Individuals who agree to be in the study will provide DNA by a saliva sample for typing the genes called EPAS1, EGLN1 and HIF1α that were previously found to regulate the response to hypoxia (low oxygen availability) such as that occurring at high altitudes. Non-invasive measurements of hemoglobin concentration and oxygen saturation of hemoglobin will also be taken. In addition, researchers will conduct qualitative and demographic research on these women's reproductive histories and the survival of their children.
The expected outcome of this study is that women with the forms of the genes that are most frequent among ethnically Tibetan populations will have lower hemoglobin concentration, higher oxygen saturation of hemoglobin, and more surviving children. Those results will connect a severe environmental stress to biological and genetic variation and reproductive success to build a case for natural selection operating in a human population and improve scientific understanding of the processes of adapting to new environments.
This U.S. – Nepalese collaborative research project has health implications not only for Tibetan populations in Asia but for people living at all altitudes around the world because these genes are necessary for intrauterine development and play central roles in the biology of diseases as diverse as osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, heart failure, and cancer.
Tarsiers are pint-size primates from Southeast Asia who produce some of the most extreme ultrasonic calls in the animal kingdom, well beyond the threshold of human hearing. Read more....
Sienna Craig:
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity Vol. 5 - No. 2 2009
SPECIAL ISSUE
Conservation, Cultivation, and Commodification of Medicinal Plants in the Greater Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau - Edited by Sienna R. Craig (who also authored the introductory essay) and Denise M. Glover
Posted on July 25, 2011 By Steve Smith
As part of Dartmouth’s flourishing partnership with the eight-year-old American University of Kuwait (AUK), five AUK students and two faculty members are studying and working at Dartmouth this summer. The partnership is unusual in higher education, with Dartmouth serving as an advisory partner to AUK, which is an autonomous, private liberal arts institution. Read more at http://now.dartmouth.edu/2011/07/partnership-brings-students-faculty-from-kuwait-to-dartmouth
ChairDale F. Eickelman |
AdministratorThérèse Périn-Deville |
