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  • Would you rather sit around watching D News videos all day

  • instead of exercising?

  • Well, if so, scientific research suggests

  • that your genes might be to blame.

  • Hi, I'm Cristen Conger, of Stuff Mom Never Told You, for D News.

  • And in 2013, research on genes-- or the cellular instruction

  • manuals we inherit from our parents--

  • offered some fascinating insights

  • into how those nifty DNA packages may influence

  • our daily habits and behaviors.

  • For starters, researchers out of the University of Missouri

  • pinpointed a set of 36 genes that

  • might determine how much or little we love to exercise.

  • After noticing how some lab rats voluntarily

  • jogged on their wheels while others

  • took it easy inside their cages, the researchers

  • bred 10 generations of the active and not-so-active rats,

  • and found that the physical activity gap persisted

  • between those groups of great, great, great, and so forth rat

  • grandchildren.

  • And the most noticeable difference

  • between those two groups-- those 36 laziness genes.

  • Now in the future, though, we might

  • have a work-around those so-called laziness genes

  • thanks to PLIN2, better known as the obesity gene.

  • A promising study published in early 2013 detailed

  • how turning off that PLIN2 genetic expression halted

  • weight gain, and increased activity levels in rats,

  • even when they were being that high fat diets.

  • Next up, scientists plan to figure out

  • the physiological mechanisms behind that obesity gene,

  • and how it might work in humans.

  • Now recent digging into our DNA has revealed not only insights

  • into our physical health, but also our emotional health.

  • For the first time, in 2013, researchers from UC Berkeley

  • and Northwestern University identified a gene variant,

  • or allele, that appeared to mediate

  • husbands' and wives' emotional sensitivity to relationship ups

  • and downs.

  • Specifically, the people who inherited two short versions

  • of this marital bliss gene tended

  • to report more relationship highs and lows, whereas those

  • with long versions of the genes were more even keeled

  • over the long term.

  • Now undoubtedly, some couples with kids

  • may experience more emotional highs

  • than lows due to a newly discovered gene that

  • triggers early, or precocious, puberty.

  • According to a 2013 study published in the New England

  • Journal of Medicine, a genetic mutation passed along

  • by fathers may cause reproductive hormones

  • to activate in kids younger than nine years old, which

  • can lead to health complications later in life, not

  • to mention a prolonged period of hormone-related adolescent

  • angst.

  • And finally, as a rare south paw,

  • I was interested to learn about a possible genetic explanation

  • for handedness.

  • It turns out that right handedness, at least,

  • may root back to embryonic genes that organize our organs,

  • and help our bodies develop symmetrically.

  • But unfortunately, we'll have to wait until 2014

  • or later to get to the bottom of why some of us

  • go left instead of right.

  • But enough about me, what about you?

  • What kinds of DNA discoveries are you

  • hoping to see in the future?

  • Tell me in the comments below, and be sure to check out

  • my channel-- youtube.com/stuffmomnevertoldyou--

  • and be sure to subscribe here for more D News.

Would you rather sit around watching D News videos all day

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