What is the impact of microgravity on genes?

Question

What is the impact of microgravity on genes?

Answer 1

Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center have identified a set of key immune-response genes that do not turn on in a weightless environment. The discovery is another clue in the effort to solve an almost 40-year-old mystery: why the human immune system does not function well in the weightlessness of space.

The researchers, led by SFVAMC biochemist and former astronaut Millie Hughes-Fulford, PhD, identified a signaling pathway called PKA that in a gravity field responds to the presence of a pathogen by stimulating the expression of 99 genes that in turn cause the activation of T-cells, which are essential for proper immune function.

Hughes-Fulford found that in the simulated absence of gravity, the PKA pathway did not respond to the pathogen's presence; as a result, 91 genes were not induced and eight genes were significantly inhibited, severely reducing the activation of T-cells.