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People tend to forget just how important hormones can be and just assume everything is because of genes.

Zenst 7y ago
We are also only equally coming around to the thinking that the makeup of bacteria in the stomach has a bigger impact in area's that we have never invisanged before.
dekhn 7y ago
hormones are proteins encoded by genes that affect gene transcription. Many hormones respond to entirely internal signals. So, much of what hormones do have a root cause in genomes (but, there are definitely limits on that statement).
refurb 7y ago
That's an odd comment since hormones are the result of gene expression.
- tapland 7y ago
  They are usually, but you don't get much variation without issues that are not genetic that affect hormones. Like hormone producing tumours.
- wnevets 7y ago
  IMO gene expression is very different than what layman like myself mean when we talk about our genes.
  - refurb 7y ago
    OK, fair point. In order for genes to have any impact on an organism they need to be expressed. And it's expression that creates the enzymes that create hormones. So it's hard to separate those two. Environmental exposure can change how genes are expressed and thus hormones.
    - Sharlin 7y ago
      But hormones are one of the things that affect gene expression in turn. There aren’t really many straightforward causal relationships in biology.
      - refurb 7y ago
        That's true, but the hormones wouldn't changes gene expression unless it was already encoded in the genes.
- PeterisP 7y ago
  Not necessarily, for example, the very thing in the article title - high levels of oestrogens in the womb - is about hormone levels not caused by expression of your genes but influenced by outside environment.
  - taneq 7y ago
    An outside environment which shares ~50% of your genes, though.
    - blaser-waffle 7y ago
      Nothing genetic about lead in the air or in paint, or hormones in your beef. Nothing genetic about alcohol or cigarette exposure in the womb. Or random thugs terrifying your parents, putting your pregnant mom through waves of fight-or-flight hormone spikes.
- dsalso 7y ago
  Yeah, but they are more precisely a function of environment. Diet, stress even sunlight affect hormone levels in a given individual.

We are also only equally coming around to the thinking that the makeup of bacteria in the stomach has a bigger impact in area's that we have never invisanged before.

dekhn 7y ago

hormones are proteins encoded by genes that affect gene transcription. Many hormones respond to entirely internal signals. So, much of what hormones do have a root cause in genomes (but, there are definitely limits on that statement).

refurb 7y ago

That's an odd comment since hormones are the result of gene expression.

tapland 7y ago
They are usually, but you don't get much variation without issues that are not genetic that affect hormones. Like hormone producing tumours.
wnevets 7y ago
IMO gene expression is very different than what layman like myself mean when we talk about our genes.
- refurb 7y ago
  OK, fair point. In order for genes to have any impact on an organism they need to be expressed. And it's expression that creates the enzymes that create hormones. So it's hard to separate those two. Environmental exposure can change how genes are expressed and thus hormones.
  - Sharlin 7y ago
    But hormones are one of the things that affect gene expression in turn. There aren’t really many straightforward causal relationships in biology.
    - refurb 7y ago
      That's true, but the hormones wouldn't changes gene expression unless it was already encoded in the genes.
PeterisP 7y ago
Not necessarily, for example, the very thing in the article title - high levels of oestrogens in the womb - is about hormone levels not caused by expression of your genes but influenced by outside environment.
- taneq 7y ago
  An outside environment which shares ~50% of your genes, though.
  - blaser-waffle 7y ago
    Nothing genetic about lead in the air or in paint, or hormones in your beef. Nothing genetic about alcohol or cigarette exposure in the womb. Or random thugs terrifying your parents, putting your pregnant mom through waves of fight-or-flight hormone spikes.
dsalso 7y ago
Yeah, but they are more precisely a function of environment. Diet, stress even sunlight affect hormone levels in a given individual.