Neanderthal : genes influence our skin color

poeticpenguin/epictura

Published the 07.10.2017 at 17h22

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gènenéandertal

Neanderthals mixed with our ancestors nearly 100,000 years ago, and these interactions are still felt today. 2% of our DNA today would be derived from neanderthals.

But scientists do not yet understand how the genetic contribution of Neanderthals is manifested at the level of our phenotype.

Using a large genetic database in the United Kingdom, researchers have obtained new information on the subject. Published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, their study now shows that genes are neanderthal influence a large number of our traits – the color of the skin and hair through our sleep habits or our tendency to smoke.

Biobank Project

The researchers analyzed the genetic data of 112 000 individuals, from a database known as the Biobank Project, in order to identify which of our traits are linked to genes known to be derived from neanderthals.

They found that several alleles of these genes, in part, determine our skin color and hair. They are associated as well to the dyed clear to dyed dark. Other genes appear to have an influence on sleep and our circadian rhythms, as well as our propensity to smoke or on our moods.

“We can now show that the skin color and a person’s ability to tan are influenced by these genes of the Neanderthals,” says one of the authors, Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

All of these traits are also related to our exposure to the sun. “The color of the skin and hair, circadian rhythms, and moods are all influenced by the amount of sunlight to which we are exposed. Our hypothesis is that the Neanderthal has been exposed to a much lower and more variable sun that the first modern men, and this gave him certain traits, that we find even today among some people,” Kelso concluded.