Scientists have discovered the “wisdom protein”. Without it, IQ drops to 40

Robert Plomin sometimes dreams that the British Education Minister will call him and ask how he can help struggling children succeed in school. – It is very easy: Thanks to DNA analysis upon enrollment in school – will be the world's answer.

Plomin has been working with DNA all his life. Specifically, small changes in DNA – so small that they involve just one letter. The researcher wants to know whether they affect, among other things: success in school. In short: yes, if there are thousands of them and they form the right combination. As a result, genes have a greater influence on the ability to learn or think logically than life circumstances. Depending on the test, genetic predisposition can be attributed to 45 to 70 percent. Differences in thinking ability.

For Plomin, these numbers answer the question of why schools fail so often. In his opinion, only genetics explains why one first grader learns to read quickly, and the other learns to read slowly. – It has a much greater impact than teaching methods, for example – says the researcher. The effect, he adds, is that weaker students lose time (and knowledge) at school because they only receive help when they suffer educational failure.

Protein – conductor

Therefore, for Plomin, having a genetic test at the beginning of school, which would allow him to identify educational difficulties in advance, is an option. Achieving the vision of equitable education. However, no one has yet proposed such a solution, even though Plomin is a popular speaker on the subject. One problem is that the compounds he discovered have no biological explanation. Why Changes in individual letters in DNA Will they make someone excel at math and someone else struggle with reading?

Worse still, these individual changes (technically called single nucleotide polymorphisms and known by the English abbreviation SNP – ed.) are often located in regions of DNA that have no “direct” contribution to learning – such as protein-coding genes. Of which synapses are made.

This mystery may have been solved thanks to an Austrian study published in the scientific journal “Molecular Cell.” At the heart of the matter is a protein called SATB2. Nico Wahl, the author of the study, calls it “the connector.” – This protein can be found in the nucleus of brain cells. It determines which genes can be easily read and which are difficult to access, explains a biotechnologist from the Medical University of Innsbruck.

SATB2 is found only in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus — and only in cells called “pyramidal cells.” These neurons are particularly large They sort the information that reaches us from the outside world. People with a rare genetic disease in which SATB2 does not reach the cell nucleus due to a mutation have difficulty learning to speak; They also absorb other information very slowly. Their IQ is around 40This percentage is so low that it is classified as “severe intellectual disability.” Most population tests are conducted with an IQ between 80 and 120.

Anchors and switches

The study in Innsbruck is the first to look at how DNA strands interact with the SATB2 protein — and without it. Wahl deciphered this process so thoroughly that he was able to develop 3D visualizations on a computer. Without SATB2, the DNA strand appears as a tangled ball; With protein it looks organized.

Why is this important? The human genome consists of three billion “letters”; When unfolded, this chain will be approximately 2 meters long – in the meantime It must fit inside the cell nucleus. So life learned how to assemble DNA in a very efficient way. Unfortunately, the “something-for-something” rule applies here: tight packing makes it impossible to read genes.

So, if a cell needs to produce a protein, in order to read the recipe in the DNA, it must first unwind and unwind the strand. This is what it deals with, among other things: SATP2. The protein manipulates DNA because it owns it 15 A are so-called anchors that fit “hooks” on the string. In this way, it allows the cell to access the genes of interest. What's more, quite a few of these anchors also act as “switches”: Ensuring that the “exposed” gene is read..

In this way, SATB2 controls the expression (i.e. whether or not they are read) of several hundred genes; As it happens These are genes that are important for the functioning of neurons. “When we think, we often have to read these genes and organize them together,” says neuroscientist George Dechant, a researcher in Wahl's group. The better this process is coordinated, the better the thinking will be. This is why “Mosul” is so important.

Plomin himself sees it differently. — [SATB2] This is just one factor among many, contributing only 0.2% to overall intelligence. For me, it is not enough to call this protein a “conductor,” as the scientist says.

Goodbye to the “genius gene”

So who is right? As it turns out, they're partly Bloomin' and partly Wahl and his team.

Let's start with Bloomin and his one-letter DNA changes. If the effect at SATB2 is very small, it could mean one of two things: either changes at this site have no effect on intelligence, or DNA errors are not tolerated here. This second option actually means that the place This is crucial for the body (That is, natural selection did not allow it to be changed.) Wahl leans toward the latter interpretation. SATB2 is almost identical in all humans with normally functioning brains (and even in all mammals).

But in practice, it means that There is no such thing as a genius gene – A genetic factor that ensures a person will have an IQ of 130 or higher. Aside from the fact that nothing of this kind has been found (see Plomin's paper) despite extensive searches, we now have another, A better explanation for human high intellectual performance.

Now that they knew that SATB2 contains stabilizers and switches, Wahl and his colleagues decided to investigate where the protein was actually used in the genome. especially Looked at 148 “SNPs for academic success”It was discovered by Irish geneticist Derek Morris from the University of Galway. Wahl noted that the most important connection points—the crucial “hooks”—lie beyond genes.

what does that mean? This is the most important thing to Ease of learning may serve as focal points for a major protein, which provides access to DNA. The more convenient it is, the more freely the ideas will flow. Even if Plomin isn't sold on the Connector idea yet, SATB2 might be The missing link between his search for SNPs and what happens in the brain. The explanation that was needed for the idea of genetic testing before the study began was to convince people.

Scientists have discovered the “wisdom protein”. Without it, IQ drops to 40

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Scientists have discovered the “wisdom protein”. Without it, IQ drops to 40

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Author

Echo Richards

Protein – conductor

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