"Did Europeans Get Fat From Neandertals?" Topic

"Neandertals and modern Europeans had something in common: They were fatheads of the same ilk. A new genetic analysis reveals that our brawny cousins had a number of distinct genes involved in the buildup of certain types of fat in their brains and other tissues—a trait shared by today's Europeans, but not Asians. Because two-thirds of our brains are built of fatty acids, or lipids, the differences in fat composition between Europeans and Asians might have functional consequences, perhaps in helping them adapt to colder climates or causing metabolic diseases.

"This is the first time we have seen differences in lipid concentrations between populations," says evolutionary biologist Philipp Khaitovich of the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai, China, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, lead author of the new study. "How our brains are built differently of lipids might be due to Neandertal DNA."

Ever since researchers at the Max Planck sequenced the genome of Neandertals, including a super high-quality genome of a Neandertal from the Altai Mountains of Siberia in December, researchers have been comparing Neandertal DNA with that of living people. Neandertals, who went extinct 30,000 years ago, interbred with modern humans at least once in the past 60,000 years, probably somewhere in the Middle East. Because the interbreeding happened after moderns left Africa, today's Africans did not inherit any Neandertal DNA. But living Europeans and Asians have inherited a small amount—1% to 4% on average. So far, scientists have found that different populations of living humans have inherited the Neandertal version of genes that cause diabetes, lupus, and Crohn's disease; alter immune function; and affect the function of the protein keratin in skin, nails, and hair…"
Full article here.
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Amicalement
Armand

Good article, Armand, reasonably balanced, and not the racist fooferah one sometimes sees in accounts of Neanderthal interbreeding with modern humans.

The work being done on comparative genomes is really interesting--I just hate to see it taken over by the fruitcake fringe.

Grelber

I don't know….everytime I wear animal skin it makes my ass look fat…

LOL DJ, thnx

Glad you enjoyed the article my friend.

Amicalement
Armand