25 December 2013 Last updated at 13:27 ET
Diabetes risk gene 'from Neanderthals'
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website
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.
