Lab report
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Seven new genetic regions linked to type-2 diabetes
Why women and men differ in height
University of Helsinki scientists have identified a genetic variant that could explain why women tend to be shorter than men. The study, published in PLOS Genetics, analysed chromosome X, one of the two sex-determining chromosomes, in almost 25,000 northern European people. The identified variant was frequent among shorter people and present in more than a third of Europeans. It was also found to increase the expression of ITM2A, a gene that has a role in cartilage development, suggesting that the more the gene is expressed, the shorter the person will be. The effect of this variant on height was shown to be much stronger in women.