Diabetes risk gene 'from Neanderthals'
A
gene variant that seems to increase the risk of diabetes in Latin Americans
appears to have been inherited from Neanderthals, a study suggests.
We now know that modern humans
interbred with a population of Neanderthals shortly after leaving Africa 60,000-70,000 years ago.
This means that Neanderthal genes
are now scattered across the genomes of all non-Africans living today.
Details of the study appear in the
journal Nature.
The gene variant was detected in a
large genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 8,000 Mexicans and
other Latin Americans. The GWAS approach looks at many genes in different
individuals, to see whether they are linked with a particular trait.
People who carry the higher risk
version of the gene are 25% more likely to have diabetes than those who do not,
and people who inherited copies from both parents are 50% more likely to have
diabetes.
The higher risk form of the gene -
named SLC16A11 - has been found in up to half of people with recent Native
American ancestry, including Latin Americans.
Drug hope
The variant is found in about 20%
of East Asians and is rare in populations from Europe and Africa.
“Start Quote
This
could illuminate new pathways to target with drugs and a deeper understanding
of the disease”
Prof Jose FlorezHarvard Medical School
The elevated frequency of this
variant in Latin Americans could account for as much as 20% of these
populations' increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes - the origins of which are
complex and poorly understood.
"To date, genetic studies
have largely used samples from people of European or Asian ancestry, which
makes it possible to miss culprit genes that are altered at different
frequencies in other populations," said co-author Jose Florez, associate
professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School
in Massachusetts.
"By expanding our search to
include samples from Mexico
and Latin America, we've found one of the
strongest genetic risk factors discovered to date, which could illuminate new
pathways to target with drugs and a deeper understanding of the disease."
The team that discovered the
variant carried out additional analyses, in collaboration with Svante Paabo of
the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Neanderthal genes 'survive in us' , SCI/TECH
Ancient humans interbred with us
Neanderthal genes 'survive in us' , SCI/TECH
Ancient humans interbred with us
, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
Neanderthals 'could speak like us'
, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
Mystery early human revealed in
DNA
, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
The gene variant was found in Neanderthal remains from Denisova Cave,
Siberia
They discovered that the SLC16A11
sequence associated with risk of type 2 diabetes is found in a newly sequenced
Neanderthal genome from Denisova Cave in Siberia.
Analyses indicate that the higher risk version of SLC16A11 was introduced into modern humans through interbreeding between early modern humans and Neanderthals.
But scientists are only just
beginning to understand the functional implications of this Neanderthal
inheritance.
"One of the most exciting
aspects of this work is that we've uncovered a new clue about the biology of
diabetes," said co-author David Altshuler, who is based at the Broad
Institute in Massachusetts.
SLC16A11 is part of a family of genes that code for proteins that transport metabolites - molecules involved in the body's various chemical reactions.
Altering the levels of the
SLC16A11 protein can change the amount of a type of fat that has been
implicated in the risk of diabetes. These findings suggest that SLC16A11 could
be involved in the transport of an unknown metabolite that affects fat levels
in cells and thereby increases risk of type 2 diab
COMENTARIOS
La ingeniería genética y la decodificación del genoma
humano, nos trae cada día grandes sorpresas. Saber que los habitantes de
nuestro país, recibieron de herencia el gene SLC16A11
y que está asociado al riesgo de tener Diabetes.
Me pregunto que investigaciones estarán
haciendo las instituciones de Salud en nuestro país.
SLC16A11 es parte de una familia de
genes que codifican proteinas, para el transporte de metabolitos, moléculas comprometidas
con varias reacciones químicas de nuestro cuerpo, la herencia genética que los
Nenderthales dejaron en América se ha valorado en un 2% de nuestro genoma, el
artículo en Inglés señala que hubo una
cruza de Homo sapiens con Nenderthales en la cueva de Danisova en Rusia.
Al hallazgo en un principio les llamaron Danisovianos, una subespecie de Homo sapiens, pero con esta publicación se aclara que en Danisova se encontró un genoma un poco diferente que es el hibrido de Homo sapiens y Nenderthales, quienes emigranon a América hace 60 000 años
Al hallazgo en un principio les llamaron Danisovianos, una subespecie de Homo sapiens, pero con esta publicación se aclara que en Danisova se encontró un genoma un poco diferente que es el hibrido de Homo sapiens y Nenderthales, quienes emigranon a América hace 60 000 años
