Gene–environment interaction
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Gene–environment interaction (or genotype–environment interaction or G×E) is the phenotypic effect of interactions between genes and the environment.
Gene–environment interaction is exploited by plant and animal breeders to benefit agriculture. For example, plants can be bred to have tolerance for specific environments, such as high or low water availability. The way that trait expression varies across a range of environments for a given genotype is called its norm of reaction.
In genetic epidemiology it is frequently observed that diseases cluster in families, but family members may not inherit disease as such. Often, they inherit sensitivity to the effects of various environmental risk factors. Individuals may be differently affected by exposure to the same environment in medically significant ways. For example, sunlight exposure has a much stronger influence on skin cancer risk in fair-skinned humans than in individuals with an inherited tendency to darker skin.
Naive nature versus nurture debates assume that variation in a given trait is primarily due to either genetic variability or exposure to environmental experiences. The current scientific view is that neither genetics nor environment are solely responsible for producing individual variation, and that virtually all traits show gene–environment interaction. Evidence of statistical interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors is often used as evidence for the existence of an underlying mechanistic interaction.
See also
- Diathesis–stress model
- Epigenetic Theory
- Evolutionary developmental psychology
- Differential Susceptibility
- Biopsychosocial model
- Gene-environment correlation
