More and more people are suffering from Type 2 diabetes due to a variety of reasons including diet, exercise, and genetics. According to a new study from researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, working with an expert from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany genetic predisposition for diabetes in Latin American populations might be related to a gene variant passed down from Neanderthals.
More and more people are suffering from Type 2 diabetes due to a variety of reasons including diet, exercise, and genetics.
According to a new study from researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, working with an expert from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, genetic predisposition for diabetes in Latin American populations might be related to a gene variant passed down from Neanderthals.
A genome wide association study that analyzed the genes of 8 thousand Mexicans and other Latin Americans shows that subjects who have the gene are 25 percent more likely to have diabetes, and people who have versions of the gene from both parents are 50 percent more likely to get diabetes.
Around 20 percent of East Asians have the gene variant, but it is rarely found in European or African populations.
Neanderthals went extinct around 30 thousand years ago, but they are believed to have interbred with other human species based on genetic evidence from remains found in Denisova Cave in Siberia.
2 percent of non-African human genomes are reportedly made up of Neanderthal DNA.
What do you think about the predisposition for diabetes being connected with genes from Neanderthals?
