Nurture over nature(dwellers go into overdrive while staying...)

The NC State researchers also examined every gene in each of the three populations and found very few genetic differences, positing that these limited differences were unlikely to explain the large gene expression differences.

Although Idaghdour initially hypothesized that environmental factors would play a role in gene expression, he didn't expect such large differences. About 30 percent of genes were differentially expressed between urban dwellers and mountain agrarians.

"The most important implication of this study is that people with the same genetic makeup can be in different environments and have different expression profiles," Idaghdour says. "The same gene can be expressed in the city but not in a rural place because of the environment. So you must look at the environment when studying associations between genes and disease."

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