Author: Linda Marsa
Title of Article: Neanderthal DNA Boosts Your Immune System
Journal: Discover Magazine
Date Published: December 22, 2011
Current research has recently found that our human ancestors’ mating with Neanderthals and Denisovans (a recently discovered archaic human group) may have made them, any through evolution, modern humans as well, less susceptible to local infections. When ancient humans mated with Neanderthals and Denisovans, they picked up some of their DNA, which may have helped fortify the modern immune system.
Laurent Abi-Rached, a Stanford immunologist has stated that “breeding with our evolutionary cousins may have facilitated the spread of modern humans by preventing them from getting sick” and gave them a survival advantage as they migrated out of Africa to Europe and Asia. A team at Stanford University found that the ancient gene for HLA-A or human leukocyte antigen class 1 genes, which play a vital role in rallying the immune system to fight off bacteria and viruses and helps the body resist viruses like Epstein-Barr, is still present in half of all modern Europeans, more than 70 percent of Asians, and up to 95 percent of people in Papua New Guinea.
Scientists have been looking at bone marrow registries containing HLA genes of people from all parts of the globe. They have compared DNA from modern humans with the reconstructed genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans and have discovered that many HLA variants from the ancient peoples are still around.
This article is an example of discovery science because in discovery science observations are made, analyzed and then tested in order to discover patterns and hopefully form a hypothesis to be formally tested. That is exactly what happened here. It was observed that modern human DNA shared many similarities with that of Neanderthals and Denisovans. Those observations were analyzed and then tested to find the cause of the similarities.
These findings help to explain where our immune system comes from and shows how ancient species played a part in how humans are today.
taken from: http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jan-feb/80
No comments:
Post a Comment