“[P]eople who were homozygous (had two copies) of this protective gene variant involved in antigen presentation were 40 percent more likely to survive the plague than those with two copies of a deleterious variant, which encodes a broken protein.”
“[P]eople who were homozygous (had two copies) of this protective gene variant involved in antigen presentation were 40 percent more likely to survive the plague than those with two copies of a deleterious variant, which encodes a broken protein.”
“[T]he ancient wolf genomes clustered together in time. That is, a given wolf was most likely to be closely related to other wolves alive at around the same time, no matter where those wolves lived on the planet.”
“[T]he pfhrp2 deletions had arisen recently and hadn’t had time for mutation and recombination to scramble the DNA sequences nearby. So, all the [malaria] parasites that carry the pfhrp2 deletion seemed to have inherited it from the same ancestor, that ancestor was very recent, and there was a selective pressure that was driving the expansion of parasites that inherited the deletion.”
“Settlements typically include a small group — usually a few dozen people — branching off from a larger population on the island of origin. By chance, a few of the genetic variants that are rare in the large population would be common in the settlers.”
“Here we encounter our first surprise. The normal RNA characters are A, C, G and U. U is also known as ‘T’ in DNA. But here we find a Ψ, what is going on?”
“The researchers conclude the South American DNA was introduced in the Marquesas, a group of islands northeast of Tahiti, shortly after 1100 CE. Over the next hundred years, it spread south from there and eventually on to Rapa Nui.”
“This single discarded piece of ancient chewing gum tells us that the ancient woman … was probably lactose intolerant, ate duck and hazelnuts, and may recently have had pneumonia. She also had blue eyes, dark brown hair, and dark skin.”