A study, published in the journal Nature in October, 2020 revealed that the genetic coding passed on by the early Neanderthal predecessors can make the coronavirus in patients three times deadlier. Neanderthals are extinct species of human that was widely distributed in ice-age Europe between 120,000 and 35,000 years ago, with a receding forehead and prominent brow ridges.
The findings establish that genetic factors can play a role in coronavirus patients. The study seeks to find reasons as to why some people with Covid-19 end up in intensive care and other have only mild symptoms, or none at all. It admits that advanced age, being a man, and pre-existing medical problems can all increase the odds of a serious outcome but gives a new twist related to genetic factors.
Recent research by the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative revealed that a genetic variant in a particular region of chromosome 3 – one of 23 chromosomes in the human genome – is associated with more severe forms of the disease. That same region was known to harbour genetic code of Neanderthal origins.
The researchers found that a Neanderthal individual from southern Europe carried an almost identical genetic segment, which spans some 50,000 so-called base pairs, the primary building blocks of DNA.
According to the researchers modern humans and Neanderthals could have inherited the gene fragment from a common ancestor some half-million years ago, but it is far more likely to have entered the homo sapiens gene pool through more recent interbreeding. The study also revealed that the potentially dangerous string of Neanderthal DNA is not evenly distributed today across the globe. Some 16 per cent of Europeans carry it, and about half the population across South Asia, with the highest proportion — 63 per cent — found in Bangladesh.
The potentially dangerous string of Neanderthal DNA is not evenly distributed today across the globe, the study showed. In East Asia and Africa the gene variant is virtually absent. About two percent of DNA in non-Africans across the globe originate with Neanderthals, earlier studies have shown. Denisovan remnants are also widespread but more sporadic, comprising less than one percent of the DNA among Asians and Native Americans, and about five percent of aboriginal Australians and the people of Papua New Guinea.
Courtesy: N D TV