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Tibetans Inherited High-Altitude Gene From Ancient Human

Posted by samzenpus on from the breathing-easy dept.

sciencehabit writes A "superathlete" gene that helps Sherpas and other Tibetans breathe easy at high altitudes was inherited from an ancient species of human. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that the gene variant came from people known as Denisovans, who went extinct soon after they mated with the ancestors of Europeans and Asians about 40,000 years ago. This is the first time a version of a gene acquired from interbreeding with another type of human has been shown to help modern humans adapt to their environment.

5 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Helpful Genes by alzoron · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the first time a version of a gene acquired from interbreeding with another type of human has been shown to help modern humans adapt to their environment.

    I'd have to say the genes for red hair were pretty damn helpful in making some of our women really attractive.

    1. Re:Helpful Genes by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      yeah, it's the same gene.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    2. Re:Helpful Genes by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Funny

      yeah, it's the same gene.

      My wife's standing behind me with an icepick and wants me to say "No it's not"

    3. Re:Helpful Genes by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Who is to say some of the Neanderthal genes that have been found in humans are not "helpful"? How are they measuring "helpful adaptation"? Perhaps they mean the high-altitude features are clearly helpful, while the benefits of others are not known yet. (Maybe some of the top football players are the top because of Neanderthal genes.)

      A significant number of those Neanderthal and Denisovan genes are thought to be very helpful. For example Neanderthal genes are thought to play an important part in the way skin works in modern Europeans/Asians/Native Americans/Australians (cold climate tolerance, resistance to some diseases, synthesis of vitamins). However, having strong suspicions that this is the case because a whole bunch of skin related DNA in these populations seems to have come from Neanderthals and Denisovians and suspecting that this DNA is important because Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA seems to have been 'selected out' of some other parts of the genome but is still there in the skin related regions of the genome is one thing. Proving it scientifically is a whole other matter. These guys simply managed to become the first to prove in a scientifically rigorous way the helpfulness of one of the numerous bits of Neanderthal/Denisovan DNA suspected to be beneficial. Now let's hope this stands up to peer review.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
  2. Re:Breeding with another humam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if you're on /., you are NOT an alpha. Lol.

    Look, every time I come here, someone says "fuck beta." I figure it's the best shot I have.