Interbreeding with Neandertals[1] restored some genetic heirlooms that modern humans left behind in the ancient exodus from Africa, new research suggests.
Those heirlooms are versions of genes, or alleles, that were present in humans' and Neandertals' shared ancestors. Neandertals carried many of those old alleles, passing them along generation after generation, while developing their own versions of other genes. A small number of humans left Africa around 100,000 years ago and settled in Asia and Europe. These migrants "lost" the ancestral alleles.
But when the migrants or their descendants interbred with Neandertals, Eurasians reinherited the ancestral heirlooms along with Neandertal DNA, John "Tony" Capra reported October 20 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.
Unfortunately, a few of the genes identified are associated with disease.
[1] Though most often spelled Neanderthal, Neandertal is also a valid spelling.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 24 2017, @06:29AM (3 children)
... that it was a bad idea to "marry" my first cousin.
But he said it was completely cool to "marry" my second cousin.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:53AM (1 child)
I guess when "bottleneck" comes, you should "marry" whoever you have at hand, as many times as it takes to pull out of hat a healthy offspring. Also, at times like that, promiscuity makes sense, because the community is searching for viable genetic matchmaking. The closer your relative is to you, the more misses there'll be, but at least you will know for the ones which turn out strong that they don't carry most of the worst of detrimental recessive traits which used to run in the family. However, accidentally you may start another species (mismatched number of chromosomes) which will be unable to have kids with your original species.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @12:03PM
I think the promiscuity makes sense also because it offers the children more genetically diverse mates: it's probably safer to try to "marry" your half-cousin than your cousin.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Oakenshield on Tuesday October 24 2017, @03:52PM
If you can't keep it in your pants, at least keep it in the family.