Philip Deitiker
Guest
|
 Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:28 pm Post subject: RACE, ANCESTRY, AND GENES: Implications for Defining Disease |
 |
|
RACE, ANCESTRY, AND GENES: Implications for Defining Disease
Risk
Rick A. Kittles1 and Kenneth M. Weiss2
Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics
Sep 2003, Vol. 4, pp. 33-67
(doi:10.1146/annurev.genom.4.070802.110356)
First published online as a Review in Advance on June 4,
2003
Abstract
Geneticists are interested in finding genes associated with
disease. Because of widespread health disparities, race is a
variable that is often said to be relevant in this context.
The idea is that members of a preconceived "race" share
common ancestry that may include genetic risk factors. Human
variation has been shaped by the long-term processes of
population history, and population samples that reflect that
history carry statistical information about shared genetic
variation or "ancestry." But race is an elusive concept and
a term difficult even to define rigorously. Unfortunately,
these problems are neither new nor related to recent genetic
knowledge. Race is also one of the most politically charged
subjects in American life because its associated
sociocultural component has notoriously led to categorical
treatment that has been misleading and politically misused.
There are ways in which the concept of race (whether or not
the term is used) can be a legitimate tool in the search for
disease-associated genes. But in that context race reflects
deeply confounded cultural as well as biological factors,
and a careful distinction must be made between race as a
statistical risk factor and causal genetic variables. |
|
