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| Origins Of Magic: New Review Of Genetic And Epigenetic Effects |
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| Living - xkcd | |||
| TS-Si News Service | |||
| Monday, 31 March 2008 18:00 | |||
London, UK, USA. Ever wondered why Harry Potter has such great magical skills despite his not being a pure-blood, or why direct descendants of Slytherin can speak to snakes through parseltongue? Of course you have. Well, scientists from the Oxford University have explained the facts behind the Potter fiction, by highliting the role of genetic factors in the passing down of magical abilities.
Based on an analysis of wizardry in the Harry Potter novels, the team at the Oxford's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, has proposed that "magic shows strong evidence of heritability." In other words, Wizards show strong evidence of heritable powers.
Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic effects. Sreeram V Ramagopalan, Marian Knight, George C Ebers, Julian C Knight. BMJ 2007;335:1299-1301 (22 December), doi: 10.1136 / bmj.39414.582639.BE. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows provides a lot of valuable information about magical families that strongly suggests a role for genetic factors," the BMJ (British Medical Journal) quoted Dr
 Julian Knight, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, as saying. "For example, magic exists in at least seven generations of the Black family and at least three generations in others. We also see twins - the Patil and Weasley twins - with the same magical abilities," he added.
The scientists discovered that just like we inherit pairs of genes - one copy from each our parents -
 genetics can influence magical abilties in three basic ways - if magical skill depends on just one copy of a version of a gene it is said to be dominant, and two, it is recessive.  (Left) Magical enhancer element within a site of accessible chromatin in human with ancestors all possessing magical abilities (pureblood), which interacts with transcriptional apparatus to drive gene expression. (Right) Chromatin in non-magical human (muggle) remains in an inactive closed conformation.
Moreover, the Oxford team thinks that magical genes are activated by a so called epigenetic mechanism, that does not directly has an effect on
DNA but can turn genes on and off down generations. An earlier study at Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute claimed that magical abilities depend on a recessive version of a gene (i.e. all wizards and witches have two copies of the wizard "W" gene, distinguishing it from the ordinary M, or Muggle, version).
However, the Oxford team suggests that this analysis is one-dimensional.
Instead of relying on one gene, the scientists believe that enchanted skills can differ across a spectrum of strength, depending on the combined influence of a prominentgene for magic, which is set on or off according to epigenetic effects, and altered by the influence of a number of genes, along with the environment.
There appear to be three magical skills that are conferred by specific genes, according to the team.
They also suggest that there are some candidate genes, that because of their reported association with speech and language, promote mutations at the FOXP2 gene, already linked with Muggle language skills.
This phenomena could thus account for the rare magical ability to speak parseltongue while variants in a gene linked with hair colour, the MC1R gene, may explain Tonks' hair-changing abilities.
However, the authors add an important warning, saying: "Without population based ascertainment to confirm the points listed above we cannot be completely sure as to the correctness of our
hypothesis, but using the information available we can be certain that some aspects of magical ability are heritable." Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic effects. Sreeram V Ramagopalan, Marian Knight, George C Ebers, Julian C Knight. BMJ 2007;335:1299-1301 (22 December), doi: 10.1136 / bmj.39414.582639.BE. Abstract
Objective. To assess the evidence for a genetic basis to magic.
Design. Literature review.
Setting. Harry Potter novels of J K Rowling.
Participants. Muggles, witches, wizards, and squibs.
Interventions. Limited.
Main outcome measures. Family and twin studies, magical ability, and specific magical skills.
Results. Magic shows strong evidence of heritability, with familial aggregation and concordance in twins. Evidence suggests magical ability to be a quantitative trait. Specific magical skills, notably being able to speak to snakes, predict the future, and change hair colour, all seem heritable.
Conclusions. A multilocus model with a dominant gene for magic might exist, controlled epistatically by one or more loci, possibly recessive in nature. Magical enhancers regulating gene expressionmay be involved, combined with mutations at specific genes implicated in speech and hair colour such as FOXP2 and MCR1.
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