Humans Having Sex With Neanderthals Gave Us Protection Against Ancient Epidemics (sciencealert.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ScienceAlert: A new study argues that we have Neanderthals to thank for helping us cope with the viral tides we encountered as we marched around the globe. Stanford University researchers have identified DNA sequences that evolved in our ancient cousins can produce antivirus proteins, which more than likely gave some human populations the edge they needed to survive. Roughly 1 percent of our genome's coding was written in Neanderthal populations. But this is a broad average -- many families with African ancestry have zero, for instance, while other populations boast as much as 2 percent or more. So the question is how much of this difference comes down to the random drift of DNA being passed on around the globe, and how much is due to natural selection giving those with Neanderthal genes an advantage?

To build a case one way or another, the Stanford researchers put together a list of just over 4,500 virus-interacting proteins (VIP) made by our genome. These were all matched against a database of Neanderthal DNA that could be found in modern East Asian and European human populations, providing 152 VIP genes shared by both groups of human. Interestingly, all of these VIP genes were of a variety that interacted with RNA viruses -- pathogens that include influenza A, hepatitis C, and HIV. This isn't to say these viruses were problems for ancient humans, but rather that similar RNA viruses were more than likely prevalent enough to shape our evolution. The discovery supports a view of genetic exchange described as the 'poison-antidote' model.

Comments

Europeans saving the world with superior genes?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Nah, there's no way this is going to be controversial. ;)

Re:Europeans saving the world with superior genes?

[ArylAkamov]

I'd like to see just how controversial we can get.
Graph of populations with neanderthal DNA and without vs average IQ would be an interesting one.

Re:Europeans saving the world with superior genes?

[hey!]

I occasionally dip into white nationalists sites to keep tabs on what's going on there, and some racists are actually embracing the Neanderthal heritage thing as a justification for supposed European genetic superiority.

As usual this kind of "just so" pseudoscience is based on the highly selective choice of data that's always underpinned various racial theories. There are some 20,000 protein encoding genes in the human genome, and if you look for geographic clusters of the 324 million known gene variants you will find some, whether it's for white skin or red hair. If you look at the big picture you find that people aren't that picky about who they have sex with, such that looking for a population that is genetically inbred over the course of more than a few hundred years is a fool's errand.

And all because...

[Bruce Perens]

Some homo sapiens sapiens couldn't get a date some evening, but there was always their Neanderthal friend for evenings like that

Re:And all because...

[PopeRatzo]

Some homo sapiens sapiens couldn't get a date some evening, but there was always their Neanderthal friend for evenings like that

The Neanderthals were really the fun ones, but could not hold their liquor. And the Sapiens girls definitely preferred them because they were bad boys, and they thought the protruding brow ridges were sexy.

Interbreeding, not 'having sex'

[Martin S.]

'Having sex' didn't give people protection, that is just poor use of language. The offspring from Interbreeding would have the benefit greater genetic diversity.

Re: Europeans saving the world with superior genes

[jd]

Nobody is claiming they're superior genes. They offer a different trade-off (greater cancer risk, greater autoimmune disease risk in exchange for a lower risk from a selection of viruses and bacteria).