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Assimilated portions of Neanderthal DNA have spread throughout our populations: they have been passed on to new generations, even as Neanderthals themselves have become extinct. About 50 percent. people in South Asia and 16 percent. People in Europe have genes from Neanderthal ancestors, and it is these genes that scientists now associate with the most severe form of COVID-19, writes Science Alert.
A team of Neanderthal genetics experts in Germany studied the DNA strand that was linked to some of the severe COVID-19 cases and compared it to a sequence known to European and Asian Neanderthals, writes CNN.
The DNA strand is found on chromosome 3. The team linked some variants of this sequence with the risk of developing a more severe COVID-19.
“We show that the risk can be related to a segment of the genome inherited from Neanderthals, which today is around 50 percent. people in South Asia and about 16 percent. In Europe, “said Svante Paabo and Hugo Zeberg of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in a study published in the journal Nature.
Modern humans are believed to have received this gene from Neanderthals when they interbred 60,000 years ago.
“People who have inherited this gene are 3 times more likely to need a lung ventilator if they contract COVID-19,” says Zaberg.
Researchers are trying to understand why some people are more vulnerable to SARS-COV-2 than others. The disease has already claimed the lives of a million people.
Delfi also released information this week on another study that explained why some people die from COVID-19 and others don’t even feel symptoms. You can read this article HERE.
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