Genes Promoting Fertility Are Found in Europeans

New York Times ^ | January 16, 2005 | Nicholas Wade

[Clara Lou]

This is really, really interesting. Thanks for posting it.

[xJones]

Decode's alternative proposal is that the flipped version was carried for many years in a different human lineage, one of the archaic populations that preceded the emergence of anatomically modern humans in Africa 150,000 years ago.

So that's what King Kong was wanting to do with the blonde!

[xJones]

Whoops, I didn't preview. The quote should be:

Decode's alternative proposal is that the flipped version was carried for many years in a different human lineage, one of the archaic populations that preceded the emergence of anatomically modern humans in Africa 150,000 years ago. Then, in some episode of rape or interbreeding, a single copy of the flipped version entered the modern human lineage some time before humans left Africa 60,000 years ago.

[muawiyah]

If the particular genetic lineage is found in only 20% of European populations, why would the "cross" have occurred in Africa?

Seems to me we have evidence of a "cross" in Europe at a later time, say when Neandertals and Cro-Magnon people co-existed.

The far smaller incidence of this genetic lineage occuring in African or Asian populations is probably due more to the romantic failure of Western European adventurers than any other factor.

[rbg81]

I guess this explains the falling European birth rate--Not!

[Domestic Church]

Pingaroo...

[BlazingArizona]

Researchers in Iceland have discovered a region in the human genome that, among Europeans, appears to promote fertility, and maybe longevity as well.

Though the region, a stretch of DNA on the 17th chromosome, occurs in people of all countries, it is much more common in Europeans, as if its effect is set off by something in the European environment.

Bordeaux.

[blam]

"Pingaroo..."

Got it, thanks. Very interesting.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[mikegi]

I don't see any evidence in this article that the inversion has anything to do with fertility. They don't even know why the inversion would affect fertility. I'd like to see how they removed confounding factors.

[johnwayne]

"I guess this explains the falling European birth rate--Not!"

My guess is birth control and abortion explains that.

My question is, what do they mean a gene that promotes fertility? How do they know that it promotes fertility and in what way does it promote it?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
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[ValerieUSA]

...and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe

Does this exclude or include the major populations of North America and Australia that were settled by Europeans?

[SunkenCiv]

Includes. :') Glad that message got through to you. The "posting message" went blank, as it were done and about to reload the topic, but it wouldn't finish. As a "V", you're quite near the end of the 300 or so FReepers on the ping list. :')

[ValerieUSA]

What ping list??





j/k

[Question_Assumptions]

The problem that I have with their common ancestor theory is that they always seem to discount multiple seperate versions of teh same mutation. If a mutation that shifts a while segment of chromosomes can happen once, it could happen twice or more.

[ElkGroveDan]

So that's what King Kong was wanting to do with the blonde!

...and it sounds like he gaver her lice too. This is exactly the kind of thing your mother warned you about.

[Max in Utah]

Looking for any physical consequence, the Decode researchers found that women carrying the flipped or inverted section tend to have slightly more children.

I wonder how large their sample was.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for the ping...very interesting.