People of European descent have between 1 and 4%. neanderthal dna, But it’s not a particularly positive legacy, because up to twelve diseases Neurological, psychiatric, immunological and cardiac diseases are related to this inheritance.
A study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science sequenced the genomes of 28,000 people and compared it to Neanderthal DNA, which showed that the higher the number of prehistoric genes, the higher the risk of certain diseases.
60,000 years ago the first encounter between a wise man and Neanderthal. The hybridization of the two species allowed the first modern humans to better adapt to the environmental conditions of the time. one of them was an example rapid coagulation: While for ancient man it was an advantage to avoid bleeding deaths, at present it is closely related to thrombosis.
Diseases such as depression, actinic keratosis, incontinence problems, vitamin B12 and thiamine deficiencies, and genes responsible for addictions such as smoking were also identified.
But this legacy is not all bad. The researchers found that three of these genes are related development of the immune systemWhich gave early humans greater adaptability to different environments.
For scientists, identifying these Neanderthal genes is essential to knowing where diseases come from and how they mutate over the years.
