Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Passionate encounters between ancient humans and their burly cousins, theNeanderthals, may have left modern people more prone to sneezes, itches and other allergies, researchers say.
The curious legacy comes from three genes that crossed into modern humans after their distant ancestors had sex with Neanderthals, or their close relatives the Denisovans, more than 40,000 years ago.
The prehistoric couplings left all non-Africans today carrying 1-6% of Neanderthal DNA. People whose ancestors never left the continent would not have crossed paths with Neanderthals or the Denisovans, a mysterious group of humans who lived in and around Siberia at the same time.
The three genes are among the most common strands of Neanderthal and Denisovan-like DNA found in modern humans, suggesting they conferred an evolutionary advantage. They probably boosted the immune system, since the genes are involved in the body’s first line of defence against pathogens such as bacteria and fungi.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...ationships-may-be-at-root-of-modern-allergies
The curious legacy comes from three genes that crossed into modern humans after their distant ancestors had sex with Neanderthals, or their close relatives the Denisovans, more than 40,000 years ago.
The prehistoric couplings left all non-Africans today carrying 1-6% of Neanderthal DNA. People whose ancestors never left the continent would not have crossed paths with Neanderthals or the Denisovans, a mysterious group of humans who lived in and around Siberia at the same time.
The three genes are among the most common strands of Neanderthal and Denisovan-like DNA found in modern humans, suggesting they conferred an evolutionary advantage. They probably boosted the immune system, since the genes are involved in the body’s first line of defence against pathogens such as bacteria and fungi.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...ationships-may-be-at-root-of-modern-allergies
