University Study Suggests Maya Ancestry Could be a Reason for Diabetes Dania Vargas Austryjak - Mexico News Network
go to original December 7, 2015

Diabetes is a disease that afflicts 12% of the Mexican population, even a higher percentage than in the United States, a condition that has turned the government’s attention to take emergency actions, as adding an 8% tax on high-calorie foods and a 10% tax to sugar-sweetened beverages. But a study from geneticists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) suggests that Maya ancestry could be a reason for higher risk for developing diabetes.

The communities of Maya descent, just like other ethnic groups in Mexico, have been decreasing in population every year, this also means that their gene pool has grown smaller and become more homogenous, a common situation in isolated populations. This might be the main reason why rare genetic variations are common in this type of groups.

As it has been registered, diabetes is a growing problem in southeastern Mexico, so this red light became the interest of clinical biochemist Marta Menjívar from UNAM, which she questioned if those genetic variations might be increasing the risk of Maya people to develop diabetes.

To find answers, the team of geneticists studied through a sample of the genomes of 575 Maya individuals looking for genetic variants previously associated to diabetes risk. The task was rather simple as they were able to easily identify among relatively homogenous gene pool, two unusual genetic variants.

“This is an important finding, because it could provide us clues about how to tackle the disease and plan public health strategies,” said María Guadalupe García, geneticist at the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY), quoted on an article from scientific publishing site, Science.

Read the rest at Mexico News Network

Photo: Jose Javier Martin Espartosa/Flickr

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