"The finding adds to further evidence of the role genetics -- rather than environmental factors such as allergies -- play in how children develop asthma, said William Cookson, a researcher at London's Imperial College's National Heart and Lung Institute, who coordinated the multinational study."

""We often think about asthma in terms of allergies," Cookson said in a telephone interview. "This gene doesn't affect allergies. It suggests other things besides allergies are driving the disease process.""

"Asthma is an inflammatory disease causing wheezing, coughing and labored breathing that can be life threatening. In some countries as many as 30 percent of children develop the condition, according to the World Health Organization."

"Scientists do not exactly know why some children develop asthma, although some believe that allergies can trigger the disease that causes a narrowing of the bronchial tubes."

"Treatments include daily inhaled steroid therapy to keep mild-to-moderate cases at bay but Cookson said his team's research could potentially lead to more targeted drugs."

"Cookson and colleagues from France, Germany, the United States and Austria, used a new technique to identify genes that predispose children to the disease."

"Writing in the journal Nature on Wednesday, they said they tested differences in DNA of about 1,000 children with asthma and about 1,200 without and found the big difference between them was on chromosome 17, Cookson said."

"Genetic variations on chromosome 17 increased the expression, or activity, of a gene called
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