Thursday, April 10, 2014

Europeans are more closely related to Neanderthals that Africans

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Europeans may be more closely related to Neanderthals than previously thought. Has long been known that breeding with Neanderthals left marks in the DNA of modern Europeans. A new study has confirmed now that the genetic similarity between the two species if accentuated with playback between humans and Neanderthals, which occurred in Europe and Asia, before the ancestors of the human species have spread across the globe.

Previous investigations indicated that modern Europeans and Asians were related to the Neanderthal because shared as common ancestor, the same African sub-population. Both the Europeans and Asians would have evolved from the same ancestor in Africa before spreading to other parts of the world. These two groups emerged in different time periods, with the Neanderthals to leave the African continent 200 thousand years before humans.

A new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Wageningen University, concluded that the two species bred in Europe and Asia for thousands of years.

The investigation involved the separation of the genetic code of each subspecies to calculate the statistical probability of the intersection of the two species have been recent or oldest. Scientists traced the biological ties that exist between humans and the old species, which are believed to have been missing for 30 thousand years.

The study concluded that the 2% of Neanderthal DNA in the genetic code of modern man comes from procreation outside of the African continent. "While there are solid evidence for genetic exchange between modern humans and Neanderthals in Eurasia, from several recent studies, it is difficult to uncover the ancient structure in Africa," says Konrad Lohse, one of the scientists who participated in the investigation.

Last week, scientists indicated that Europeans share with Neanderthals several genes involved in fat production. However, these same genes have not been found in Asia and Africa. This legacy of genes is related to a greater likelihood of cancer and diabetes, suggesting that the modern European might be closer to the Neanderthal than Africans.

Foto: erix! /Creative Commons

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