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Swedish paleogeneticist and winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine Svante Paabo poses for a photo before a press conference, at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, October 3, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
This month’s winner of the Noble Prize in Physiology and Medicine, Svante Paabo, has achieved the near-impossible by sequencing the genome of our extinct human cousins, the Neandethals. In doing so, his work has clarified what sets us apart as a species, and also what we can share with them.
Since humans outside of Africa share one to three percent of our genetics with Neandethals through interbreeding, everything from our sense of smell to our immune system, even how we react to diseases like COVID-19, can be traced influentially back to our last lifetime. close human beings.
The first modern humans who spread around the world 80,000 years ago from Africa encountered the Neanderthals, our ancient human cousins ​​who already populated parts of Asia and Europe. There, the two distinct but closely related species interbred, with echoes of Neanderthal DNA still existing in modern human populations. These genetic swaps have left their mark on everything from our immune system to our mood and heart health.
Neanderthal DNA has been linked to stronger immune responses in fighting certain diseases and may make some of us more prone to allergies. Certain toll-like receptor genes that detect bacteria, parasites, and fungi were found to originate from Neanderthal DNA and had the highest prevalence among Europeans and Asians. This species of human lived in Eurasia for about 200,000 years longer than modern humans when they arrived, meaning they were much better adapted to local foods and diseases. By interbreeding with them, our modern human species Homo Sapiens acquired these advantages to survive in this new environment. However, possession of Neanderthal DNA is correlated as being a major risk factor for experiencing severe symptoms of Covid-19.
Neanderthal DNA also helps reduce the risk of prostate cancer and accelerate blood clotting. These last figures, given that they lived fast-paced violent lives, with skeletons recounting a traumatic past. The skeletal analysis bears similarities to the wounds of modern Spanish bullfighters, testifying to Neanderthal hunting tactics, often thought to involve charging large, dangerous animals with spear in hand.
Curiously, researchers from the UK-based Max Planck Institute have found that residual Neanderthal DNA can lead to more intense pain. The team surveyed 362,000 people about pain experience and matched their genetic profile with whether or not a Neanderthal variant of a particular ion channel, partly responsible for nerve signaling, was present. Carrying this gene made people more painful, perhaps their archaic human ancestry was to blame.
Once considered brutal ancestral relics, Neanderthals are now seen as a sophisticated human species in their own right. On average, they had larger brain volumes than us and were capable of complex and sophisticated language. Why we survived and they didn’t has long been considered a scientific mystery, with many academic debates still raging to this day.
Extinct species left their genetic heritage, however, and more living Neanderthal DNA has now spread through our huge global modern population than ever during the last Ice Age, meaning this mysterious group of humans lives always in us.
Barry He is a London-based columnist for China Daily.
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