Are they prone to allergies? Perhaps it is your Neanderthal genes

If you avoid wild flowers, citrus fruits, chocolate or nuts because of allergic reactions, then your Neanderthal ancestors, or rather their genes, are to blame.

Where do we get the Neanderthal genes?

It is known that Neanderthals, Denis and Cro-Magnon people (the ancestors of modern people) are three different types. How does today some people manifest either Neanderthal or Denis genes?

The coexistence of these different species was extremely short-lived, but still sufficient for cohabitation in the same territories. In addition to wars and personal conflicts, there were mixed marriages, and the children born in them were hybrids - carriers of the genome of one and the other people. After the arrival of the Cro-Magnon people, the Neanderthal and Denisov people soon disappeared from the face of the earth, leaving the modern man with 4% of his genes.

How does the inherited genes have allergies?

Allergy - the reaction of the immune system to stimuli. If you are allergic, it does not mean that you have weak immunity, rather the opposite. This small percentage of the genome you inherited from the Neanderthal ancestor made your immune system very alert and quick to kill. Therefore, not only to viruses and infections, but also to small troubles such as pollen and poplar fluff.

Each person belonging to the European race, inherited from 1 to 6% of the genome of the Neanderthal ancestors. Why do not allergic reactions appear in everyone? Anthropologists and geneticists have proved that in the Neanderthal man the immune responses were much better developed than in the Cro-Magnon people. Neanderthal genes inherited by modern humans most influence the Toll-like receptors that control the innate immunity and cellular response of the organism to stimuli. Accordingly, the higher the percentage of the inherited genome, the greater the likelihood of allergic reactions.

Modern genetic research

In a recent publication of the American Journal of Human Genetics, two independent and unrelated studies came to the same conclusion: Neanderthal and Denis genes are most strongly manifested in the immune system.

Dr. Michael Dannemann studies the inherited from the disappeared species of human DNA elements. He came to the conclusion that Toll-like receptors are most susceptible to the influence of the Neanderthal genome alleles. According to his research, 11 to 51% of people who do not belong to African races have at least one Neanderthal allele. The value of the percentage varies depending on the race of a person.

The second study was conducted by Dr. Louis Quintana-Mursi. The study of Toll-like receptors was only an integral part of his project, whose purpose is to examine the evolution of genes responsible for the human immune system. According to him, the most changes our immunity has undergone in the last 13 thousand years is a period when people gradually changed their way of subsistence by switching from hunting and gathering to agriculture and livestock.