Abstract
First reported in 1956, hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI) illustrates vividly how interactions between genes and nutrients can influence taste preferences; the disease also reflects the ascendancy of sucrose and fructose as energy sources and as the world's principal sweeteners. However, HFI is not the only genetic ill to have emerged from our obsession with sugar: the slave trade, which had such a key part in the development of the sugar industry, also included major genetic consequences in its haunting legacy.
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DATABASES
LocusLink
OMIM
glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency
hereditary fructose intolerance
non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes mellitus
FURTHER INFORMATION
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
Glossary
- ACIDOSIS
-
An excess of acid in the body fluids as a primary disturbance of hydrogen ion metabolism.
- CENTRIFUGAL SUGAR
-
An industrial term for the product of modern sugar factories; commercial sugar is described as raw sugar if it is >96% sucrose and further refining generates the pure product. The terms 'centrifugal' and 'non-centrifugal' distinguish between the products of modern and traditional methods of manufacture: they refer to the methods used to separate sucrose crystals from the molasses.
- FRUCTOSAEMIA
-
The presence of fructose in the blood.
- GENETIC DRIFT
-
The random changes in allele frequency that occur because genes that appear in offspring are not a perfectly representative sample of the parental genes (for example, as occurs in small populations).
- GLUCAGON
-
A pancreatic hormone released from the islets of Langerhans. It stimulates the formation of glucose, especially by activating liver phosphorylase, through the hormone-sensitive adenyl cyclase signalling pathway. Phosphorylase is the rate-limiting enzyme for the breakdown of glycogen.
- HAPLOTYPE
-
An experimentally determined profile of genetic markers that are present on a single chromosome of any given individual.
- HYPERMAGNESAEMIA
-
A high plasma concentration of ionized magnesium.
- HYPERURICAEMIA
-
A high plasma-urate concentration.
- HYPOGLYCAEMIA
-
A low blood-glucose concentration.
- SICKLE CELL TRAIT
-
Heterozygosity for the inherited β-globin variant, HbS; the individual does not have sickle cell disease.
- β-THALASSAEMIA
-
A group of inherited blood diseases caused by reduced synthesis of β-globin polypeptide chains.
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Cox, T. The genetic consequences of our sweet tooth. Nat Rev Genet 3, 481–487 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg815
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg815
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