Resistance to Disease & Genetics
Discussion
Fascinating article in Today's Telegraph
Apparently 10% of Europeans are descended from a single ancestor who lived in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) 3,000 years ago.
His genes have been so succesful because he developed a mutation that made him resistant to viral infections.
All of his descedents were thus able to survive the plague. They have calculated that before the Black Death struck Europe in 1347 only one in 20,000 Europeans were descended from him. But after the death toll from this and later plagues (which wiped out 40% of the worlds population) his descendents form a far larger proportion.
Apparently this mutation also increases resistance to HIV.
Apparently 10% of Europeans are descended from a single ancestor who lived in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) 3,000 years ago.
His genes have been so succesful because he developed a mutation that made him resistant to viral infections.
All of his descedents were thus able to survive the plague. They have calculated that before the Black Death struck Europe in 1347 only one in 20,000 Europeans were descended from him. But after the death toll from this and later plagues (which wiped out 40% of the worlds population) his descendents form a far larger proportion.
Apparently this mutation also increases resistance to HIV.
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