{"id":41042,"date":"2025-04-22T12:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T12:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/41042\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T12:17:08","slug":"cracking-indias-genetic-code-india-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/41042\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking India\u2019s genetic code – India Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated April 28, 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n

India\u2019s largest-ever genomic study has identified genetic variants unique to the country, marking a crucial step in closing a longstanding gap in global genomics research. The preliminary findings, published last week in Nature Genetics, come from the GenomeIndia project\u2014a nationwide effort to map the country\u2019s vast genetic diversity.<\/p>\n

Launched in January 2020, GenomeIndia brought together over 100 researchers from 20 institutions to conduct whole genome sequencing\u2014a technique by which the sequence of the building blocks of DNA, known as nucleotides, is decoded\u2014across a broad swathe of India\u2019s population. The study analysed DNA from 10,074 individuals, drawn from a total of 20,000 blood samples collected from 83 population groups\u2014both tribal and non-tribal.<\/p>\n

Despite being home to more than 4,600 distinct ethnic groups, India\u2019s representation in global genomics databases has long been lacking. The project aims to generate vital data on the genetic makeup of the Indian population, with implications for better understanding of health and disease patterns unique to the region.<\/p>\n

A human genome has 3.2 billion base pairs, or sequences formed by the four nucleotides [adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T)]. These pairs are organised into long molecules of DNA called chromosomes of which there are 23 pairs\u201422 of these are called autosomes and one pair comprises the sex chromosomes which decide the individual\u2019s sex. Typically, two individuals can differ by 0.1 to 0.4 per cent of their genome, which means there will be differences in a few million positions in their DNA code.<\/p>\n

The GenomeIndia study found 180 million genetic variants from the whole genome sequencing of 9,772 individuals. Of these, around 130 million variants were in the autosomes, or non-sex chromosomes. As much as 65 per cent of variants were ultra-rare. \u201cThe identified genetic variants decode extensive genetic diversity that has been hitherto uncaptured in the Indian population,\u201d the paper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just the beginning. The GenomeIndia team is now performing in-depth analysis to find out the meaning of these genetic variations,\u201d says Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj, joint national coordinator of GenomeIndia and CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology at Hyderabad. Some variants, he explains, may be associated with diseases; others with therapeutic\/ adverse response to drugs, susceptibility\/ resistance to infectious disease, or adaption. \u201cOnce the information from the genome sequence of 9,772 individuals is extracted, we will have very comprehensive information about the Indian population, its history as well as medical implications.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two promising areas of application in healthcare: personalised medicine and enhanced diagnostics. The former means that clinicians can tailor treatment and prescribe drugs based on genetic profiles, taking into account an individual\u2019s response, particularly an adverse reaction, to a drug. In the area of diagnostics, the GenomeIndia project aims to design a genotype array for the Indian population which will improve on existing arrays. Unlike whole genome sequencing, a genotyping array is a genetic test that takes readouts from certain markers in the genome and analyses it in conjunction with a reference panel\u2014this makes it more affordable than whole genome sequencing. Currently, given that the global genomic landscape is predominantly Euro-centric, models built on other populations have limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Indian genetic dataset will help build better models to predict a person\u2019s risk of developing diseases like type 2 diabetes or Alzheimer\u2019s, which are polygenic in nature, meaning an individual\u2019s susceptibility is determined by many genes and influences from environmental factors,\u201d explains Bratati Kahali, one of the principal investigators based in the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, which is the project\u2019s coordinating centre. \u201cRight now, most of these models are based on data from European populations, so they don\u2019t work as well for Indians. The GenomeIndia data reveals genetic patterns specific to the Indian population, which can improve the accuracy of these models for Indians and possibly other South Asians. Overall, this research will help us better understand how genetics plays a role in different diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having accomplished the arduous task of setting up an information-rich biobank, researchers are now bracing to mine the data for insights that can bring precision to India\u2019s healthcare.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to India Today Magazine<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Published By: <\/p>\n

Arunima Jha<\/p>\n

Published On: <\/p>\n

Apr 22, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated April 28, 2025) India\u2019s largest-ever genomic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[23316,23318,23315,23314,267,23309,23307,12212,23308,23310,23311,23312,23313,23305,23306,23317,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-41042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-ancestral-north-indian-people","9":"tag-aryan-invasion-theory","10":"tag-austro-asiatic-people","11":"tag-dravidian-people","12":"tag-genetics","13":"tag-genome-inida","14":"tag-genome-mapping","15":"tag-genome-sequencing","16":"tag-genomeindia","17":"tag-india-dna-mapping","18":"tag-india-dna-sequencing","19":"tag-india-ethnic-groups","20":"tag-india-genetic-groups","21":"tag-india-genome-mapping","22":"tag-india-genome-sequencing","23":"tag-indo-european-people","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114381576207351587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}