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Do genes raise cancer risk for blacks?
This week–
SOUNDBITES
Genes load cancer dice against black people
compared breast tumours taken from 26 pairs of black and white women, matched for age and the stage of their cancer, who were either members of the US military, or were the dependantof a serving member. All of the patients were being treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, minimising biases due to racial disparities in access to healthcare. The researchers found 65 genes with significantly different levels of activity between tumours from the black and white patients. This time, there was no clear link with the immune system. Few of the genes identified had previously been linked to cancer, so what caused the differences is unclear. Field suggests that mutations in some genes may be involved, or altered “epigenetic” chemical regulation of genes. “We really don’t know at this time.” The long-term goal, she says, is to identify new targets for drugs – which could improve survival prospects for African Americans. Peter Aldhous, San Diego G
tumours removed from 33 African American and 36 white patients, they found 160 genes differing in activity between blacks and whites, many tied to immunity. The differences could mean that tumours are more inflamed in black people. But some genes identified govern production of interferons, which defend against viruses. So it’s possible the extra cases of prostate cancer in African Americans could be due to a higher rate of infection with an unknown cancer-causing virus. The team is now trying to find out if this is the case. African American women, meanwhile, are slightly less likely to develop breast cancer than whites – but it often strikes them younger and is more lethal. Lori Field of the Windber Research Institute in Pennsylvania
Orchids have male wasps under their spell
for an explanation in the results of studies on 222 insects which were fooled by various orchid species. “The orchids that caused the most extreme behaviour – pollination with ejaculation – have the highest pollination rate of any known sexually deceptive orchid,” says Gaskett. This may be good for the orchid but not for the wasp. Gaskett thinks its special reproductive system might explain why males haven’t evolved to avoid the orchids: female wasps reproduce asexually to spawn males, while sexual reproduction produces females. “If you’re the female and you miss out on mating because your –No really, I’m a wasp– male is out with an orchid, you can still reproduce,” she says. “It’s a very interesting check if they were wasting their hypothesis,” says Florian Schiestl sperm on the flowers,” she says, which closer examination confirmed. at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. A simple test would Field experiments also showed be to see if the orchid dupe wasps nearly three-quarters of the male have more males than a related wasps ejaculated on the flowers first species that doesn’t fancy flowers, time round, but wised up after repeated visits. The team then looked he says. Ewen Callaway G
WHILE few can resist the allure of a beautiful orchid, some wasps outdo the most ardent flower lover. Male orchid dupe wasps become so enamoured with Australian tongue orchids, which give off the scent of female wasps, that they ejaculate. But what price does the wasp pay for this misdirected mating? Many insects are sexually deceived into liaisons with flowers, but few go as far as Lissopimpla excelsa, says Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who led the study (The American Naturalist, DOI: 10.1086/587532) testing the wasp’s behaviour towards Cryptostylis. Gaskett noticed that some wasps in the bush outside Sydney left a visible blob on tongue orchid flowers following their visits. “We decided to 8 | NewScientist | 19 April 2008
ESTHER BEATON
PROSTATE and breast cancer are more deadly for African Americans than for whites. Now it seems that differences in the activity of key genes may be partly to blame. Black men in the US are around 60 per cent more likely to develop prostate cancer than their white counterparts, and twice as likely to die from the disease. Until now, socioeconomic factors such as access to healthcare have mainly been blamed. But at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego, California, on 15 April, Tiffany Wallace of the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, implicated biological differences between the tumours of blacks and whites. When Wallace and her colleagues screened prostate
‹ We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths.› Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, is calling for more aid for poor countries to tackle spiralling global food prices (BBC online, 14 April)
‹ If you’re telling them it’s absolutely safe, then it’s not ethical.› Soil chemist Murray McBride of the Cornell Waste Management Institute criticises a study in which sewage sludge was sprayed onto people’s yards in poor, black neighbourhoods in Baltimore to test whether the way it binds to lead could prevent poisoning from the soil (Associated Press, 14 April)
‹ Are we talking about the Stephen Kings of the future or about somebody who’s seriously thinking about doing something harmful?› On the anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, David Wallace of the University of Central Florida questions whether it is right to scrutinise violent material in student writing assignments to gauge the risk of a repeat event (The Washington Post, 13 April)
‹ For me, he was the last titan, the only physics superhero still standing.› Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pays tribute to John Wheeler, who coined the term “black hole” and made huge contributions to 20th-century physics. He died this week aged 96 (The New York Times, 14 April)
‹ Monkeys are very illmannered – they try to clutch whatever they can, they fancy they can switch whatever they want.› Vladimir Ponomarenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences argues dogs are much better behaved in space (Reuters, 11 April)
www.newscientist.com
SOUNDBITES
Genes load cancer dice against black people
compared breast tumours taken from 26 pairs of black and white women, matched for age and the stage of their cancer, who were either members of the US military, or were the dependantof a serving member. All of the patients were being treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, minimising biases due to racial disparities in access to healthcare. The researchers found 65 genes with significantly different levels of activity between tumours from the black and white patients. This time, there was no clear link with the immune system. Few of the genes identified had previously been linked to cancer, so what caused the differences is unclear. Field suggests that mutations in some genes may be involved, or altered “epigenetic” chemical regulation of genes. “We really don’t know at this time.” The long-term goal, she says, is to identify new targets for drugs – which could improve survival prospects for African Americans. Peter Aldhous, San Diego G
tumours removed from 33 African American and 36 white patients, they found 160 genes differing in activity between blacks and whites, many tied to immunity. The differences could mean that tumours are more inflamed in black people. But some genes identified govern production of interferons, which defend against viruses. So it’s possible the extra cases of prostate cancer in African Americans could be due to a higher rate of infection with an unknown cancer-causing virus. The team is now trying to find out if this is the case. African American women, meanwhile, are slightly less likely to develop breast cancer than whites – but it often strikes them younger and is more lethal. Lori Field of the Windber Research Institute in Pennsylvania
Orchids have male wasps under their spell
for an explanation in the results of studies on 222 insects which were fooled by various orchid species. “The orchids that caused the most extreme behaviour – pollination with ejaculation – have the highest pollination rate of any known sexually deceptive orchid,” says Gaskett. This may be good for the orchid but not for the wasp. Gaskett thinks its special reproductive system might explain why males haven’t evolved to avoid the orchids: female wasps reproduce asexually to spawn males, while sexual reproduction produces females. “If you’re the female and you miss out on mating because your –No really, I’m a wasp– male is out with an orchid, you can still reproduce,” she says. “It’s a very interesting check if they were wasting their hypothesis,” says Florian Schiestl sperm on the flowers,” she says, which closer examination confirmed. at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. A simple test would Field experiments also showed be to see if the orchid dupe wasps nearly three-quarters of the male have more males than a related wasps ejaculated on the flowers first species that doesn’t fancy flowers, time round, but wised up after repeated visits. The team then looked he says. Ewen Callaway G
WHILE few can resist the allure of a beautiful orchid, some wasps outdo the most ardent flower lover. Male orchid dupe wasps become so enamoured with Australian tongue orchids, which give off the scent of female wasps, that they ejaculate. But what price does the wasp pay for this misdirected mating? Many insects are sexually deceived into liaisons with flowers, but few go as far as Lissopimpla excelsa, says Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who led the study (The American Naturalist, DOI: 10.1086/587532) testing the wasp’s behaviour towards Cryptostylis. Gaskett noticed that some wasps in the bush outside Sydney left a visible blob on tongue orchid flowers following their visits. “We decided to 8 | NewScientist | 19 April 2008
ESTHER BEATON
PROSTATE and breast cancer are more deadly for African Americans than for whites. Now it seems that differences in the activity of key genes may be partly to blame. Black men in the US are around 60 per cent more likely to develop prostate cancer than their white counterparts, and twice as likely to die from the disease. Until now, socioeconomic factors such as access to healthcare have mainly been blamed. But at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego, California, on 15 April, Tiffany Wallace of the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, implicated biological differences between the tumours of blacks and whites. When Wallace and her colleagues screened prostate
‹ We have to put our money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths.› Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, is calling for more aid for poor countries to tackle spiralling global food prices (BBC online, 14 April)
‹ If you’re telling them it’s absolutely safe, then it’s not ethical.› Soil chemist Murray McBride of the Cornell Waste Management Institute criticises a study in which sewage sludge was sprayed onto people’s yards in poor, black neighbourhoods in Baltimore to test whether the way it binds to lead could prevent poisoning from the soil (Associated Press, 14 April)
‹ Are we talking about the Stephen Kings of the future or about somebody who’s seriously thinking about doing something harmful?› On the anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre, David Wallace of the University of Central Florida questions whether it is right to scrutinise violent material in student writing assignments to gauge the risk of a repeat event (The Washington Post, 13 April)
‹ For me, he was the last titan, the only physics superhero still standing.› Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pays tribute to John Wheeler, who coined the term “black hole” and made huge contributions to 20th-century physics. He died this week aged 96 (The New York Times, 14 April)
‹ Monkeys are very illmannered – they try to clutch whatever they can, they fancy they can switch whatever they want.› Vladimir Ponomarenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences argues dogs are much better behaved in space (Reuters, 11 April)
www.newscientist.com