Cattle to Kazakhstan + Blue Eyes

choi

(1) Sheridan Prasso,  Cows? The trade gap? Kazakhstan?  With an airlift of heifers from North Dakota, this Central Asian country seeks new life for its beef cattle industry. Fortune, Feb 7, 2012 (cover date)
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/ ... n.fortune/index.htm

Note:
(a) Global Beef Consultants, LLC
http://www.globalbeefllc.com/
(b) For porterhouse steak, see T-bone steak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-bone_steak
(steaks of beef cut from the short loin and including a T-shaped bone with meat on each side; section 1 Etymology)
(c) Fargo, North Dakota
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo,_North_Dakota
(largest city in North Dakota; the city was renamed "Fargo" in honor of Northern Pacific Railway director and Wells Fargo Express Company founder William Fargo)
(d) Hereford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford
(county town of Herefordshire, England; on the River Wye; The name "Hereford" is said to come from the Anglo Saxon "here", an army or formation of soldiers, and the "ford", a place for crossing a river. If this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the Wye)
(e) Hereford (cattle)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_(cattle)
(a beef cattle breed; Originally from Herefordshire)
(f) NDSU stans for North Dakota State University
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_State_University
(North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, more commonly known as North Dakota State University (NDSU), is a public university in Fargo; founded in 1890)
(g) dank (adj): "unpleasantly moist or wet <a dank basement>"
www.m-w.com
(h) The article remarks that the plane avoid steep inclines." The "incline" is a noun.

incline (vi; Latin inclinare, from in- + clinare to lean — more at LEAN):
"1: to bend the head or body forward : BOW
2: to lean, tend, or become drawn toward an opinion or course of conduct"
(i) The final sentence says Mr Price "floored the horse truck.

floor (vi): "to press (the accelerator of a vehicle) to the floorboard; also : to accelerate rapidly <floored the van>"


(2) Lucette Lagnado, For Brides and Grooms Who Have Everything, Something to Ease the Conscience; Couples encourage their friends, in lieu of a gift, to send a goat to Mali. Wall Street Journal, Jan 28, 2012 (front page).

Note:
(a) Mali
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali
(independence from France in 1960; the Mali Empire [c 1230 to c 1600] (from which Mali is named))
(b) There is no need to read the rest.

(3) Marshall Eckblad, Cattle Herd Shrinks To Smallest In 60 Years. WSJ, Jan 28, 2012
(paragraph 1: "The US cattle herd has shrunk to its smallesrt size in 60 years, the US Department of Agriculture reported, due to a drought in the southern plains that has forced ranchers to cull hundreds of thousands of cattle")

(4) Matt Ridley, Of Culture and Cows: What We Teach Our Genes. Why do some people have blue eyes? Perhaps because of a shift to eating bread in the north 6,000 years ago. WSJ, Jan 28, 2012.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 78902881506254.html

Note:
(a) The article states, "This 'lactase persistence' is caused by one of fiour genetic mutations that occurred in different regions and at different dates, one in Europe and three in Africa."

(i) The genetic mutations--each called a point mutation due to a base-pair change, from one of the four letter (A, C, G, T) to any of the other three--are as followed:
* C/T-13910 in Europe, as well as
* G/C-14010, T/G-13915 and C/G-13907 in Africa,
all of which are autosomal dominant.
(ii) The convention in biology is akin to that in arithmetic. A gene is represented as a line left to right, with the very beginning of a gene assigned number 1: this is the base where transcription (from DNA to RNA) starts, proceeds to the right (base 2, 3 and so on)--but translation (from RNA to protein) usually starts somewhere downstream (after 1). There is no zero in gene representation. Rather, it goes -1, -2 and so forth.
(iii) In Europe the point mutation change C (for cytosine) to T (thymine) at position -13910. Knowledge about what controls expression of a gene and how remains limited. It is believed that the change of a sinlge base pair in the European variant serves as an enhancer, prompting the enhanced expression of the lactase gene (whose notation is LCT).
Troelsen JT et al, An Upstream Polymorphism Associated With Lactase Persistence Has Increased Enhancer Activity. Gastroenterology, 125(:1686-94 (2003).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14724821

(v) Europe

Schultheis PJ and Bowling BV, Analysis of a SNP Linked to Lactase Persistence: An exercise for teaching molecular biology techniques to undergraduates. Biochem Mol Biol Educ, 39:133-40 (2011).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21445905

(vi) Africa

Sarah A Tishkoff SA et al, Convergent Adaptation of Human Lactase Persistence in Africa and Europe. Nature Genetics, 39: 31 - 40 (2006).
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v39/n1/abs/ng1946.html
(G/C-14010, T/G-13915 and C/G-13907)

(b) Plantinga TS et al, Low Prevalence of Lactase Persistence in Neolithic South-West Europe. Eur J Hum Genet, _: _ (online publishing on Jan 11, 2012)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22234158
(c) Neolithic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic
(the last part of the Stone Age; The Neolithic began with the rise of farming and ended when metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age (chalcolithic) or Bronze Age or developing directly into the Iron Age; Unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species (Homo sapiens sapiens) reached the Neolithic)

The start and end years of the Neolithic varied with civilizations. Generally speaking, the Neolitic started 10200 BCE.

(d) aurochs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroch
(ancestor of domestic cattle; Representations and descriptions of aurochs appear in prehistoric cave paintings; section 5 Destication_and_extinction)

The plural form of aurochs is still aurochs.

(e) The article then talks about farther upstream of OCA2 gene, in a location called rs12913832 within the expanse of another gene HERC2, affects expression of the former (OCA2) gene.

But first it mentioned "the approximately named" Danish genetist Hans Eiberg. I can not find, and do not know, the meaning of the last name. But what the article attempts to say is the first syllable of Eiberg sound the same as "eye" in Enhlish.
  
(i) Visser M et al, HERC2 rs12913832 Modulates Human Pigmentation by Attenuating Chromatin-Loop Formation Between a Long-Range Enhancer and the OCA2 Promoter. Genome Res, _: _ (online publication Jan 26, 2012; Palstra RJ is the last author).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22234890
("the exact functional role of HERC2 rs12913832 in human pigmentation is unknown. Here we demonstrate that the HERC2 rs12913832 region functions as an enhancer regulating OCA2 transcription")

(ii) What the heck is rs12913832?

(A) SNP Submission Tool. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), undated.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/SNP/
("Reference SNP ID(rs)")
(B) When a biologist submit a SNP in this manner, a nu,ber is assigned. For example:
SNP. NCBI, undated.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/snp
("Example: rs709932[RS]")
(C) For SNP, see single-nucleotide polymorphism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism

(iii) OCA2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCA2
(OCA2 encodes the human homologue of the mouse p (pink-eyed dilution) gene)

The OCA gene in humans and the Oca2 gene (formerly known as p) in mice both encode OCA or P protein, where OCA2 stans for oculocutaneous albinism II.
(iv) The genes HERC2 (human) and Herc2 (mouce counterpart) encode HERC2 protein, where HERC stands for "hect domain and RLD 2" and hect, "homologous to the E6-AP (UBE3A) carboxyl terminus."

(v) Sequence of (human) OCA2 gene.

Rinchik EM et al, A Gene for the Mouse Pink-Eyed Dilution Locus and for Human Type II Oculocutaneous Albinism. Nature, 361: 72-6 (1993).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8421497
(vi) Function of OCA2/Oca2 genes is not exactly clear. It encodes a transporter which regulates pH of melanosona. Then what?

Brillaint MH, The Mouse p (pink-eyed dilution) and Human P Genes, Oculocutaneous Albinism type 2 (OCA2), and Melanosomal pH. Pigment Cell Res, 14:86-93 (2001; review).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11310796
("Recessive mutations of the mouse p (pink-eyed dilution) gene lead to hypopigmentation of the eyes, skin, and fur. Mice lacking a functional p protein have pink eyes and light gray fur (if non-agouti) or cream-colored fur (if agouti)")

(f) The article says, "Why did this mutation [bringing about blue eyes] became so common somewhere around the shores of the Baltic sea around 6,000 years ago? The answer may be in the fact that the date coincides with the arrival of agriculture in the area. When people began relying heavilty on a diet of bread at such a northern latitude, they probably became chronicall deficient in vitamin D, for bread is generally low in vitamin D."
(g) My recommendation is that when you read this article, you ought to "separate the wheat from the chaff." Matthew 3:12.

Research findings are one thing, and author's speculation is another. Everyone can speculate.

(i) Europeans were not the only people who drank milk or consumed dairy products. But there is no LCT mutation among nomads in other parts of the world.
(ii)
(A) vitamin D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D
(section 4.3 Dietary sources: UV-irradiated mushrooms and yeast are the only known vegan significant sources of vitamin D from food sources; section 5 History)
(B) Chinese ate rice, whose vitamin D is as insignificant as wheat. But Chinese do not have blue eyes.
(iii) Genes that control eye colors may act independently from those for skin colors. I have seen people with darker skin with green eyes. As a biologist, I was so shocked when seeing such a woman, a receptionist at Brigham and Women;'s Hospital in Boston. I wondered if she was wearing contact lens and what her heritage was, but dare not ask her.

But an Afghan teenage girl did have natural green eyes.
Cathy Newman, A Life Revealed. Her eyes have captivated the world since she appeared on our cover in 1985. Now we can tell her story. National Geographic, April 2002.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text