According to a study, food that soon-to-be-moms eat in the days and weeks around the time of conception may affect the functioning of genes in her children, and their health.

In the West Africa study, Waterland and co-researchers found that levels of DNA methylation were higher at regions of five genes in children conceived during the peak rainy season months of August and September, when food would typically have been less available to their mothers.
According to Waterland, two of the five genes in which elevated DNA methylation occurred warrant further study because they are associated with risk of disease. Specifically, the SLITRK1 gene is associated with Tourette's syndrome, and the PAX8 gene is linked to hypothyroidism.
The researchers attributed the epigenetic variation to dramatic seasonal differences in the kinds and amounts of foods available in the three subsistence-farming villages that were the focus of the study.
Waterland works at the Children's Nutrition Research Center in Houston, Texas, which is managed by the Agricultural Research Service, USDA's chief in-house scientific research agency, and by the Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, where Waterland is an associate professor of pediatrics and of molecular and human genetics. This research supports the USDA priority of improving children's health and nutrition.
The study has been published in PLoS Genetics.
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