Genetics: 34,000-year-old genes influence our health

"These results have astounded us all. They represent an enormous advance in our understanding of the evolution of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases", notes William Barrie from the University of Cambridge. Keystone / Matthias Rietschel

Ancient genes influence our health: as part of a vast study, an international team has examined the genetic heritage of people who lived as far back as 34,000 years ago. Scientists say they are astonished by the results, published this week in the journal Nature.

The team, made up of 175 scientists from 22 countries, including a researcher from the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics in Lausanne, created the world’s largest database of ancient human DNA.

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To do this, they analysed the bones and teeth of nearly 5,000 skeletons, from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, from the Viking Age to well into the Middle Ages, as the universities of Cambridge (UK) and Copenhagen write in a press release.

Risk of multiple sclerosis

One of the conclusions is that the increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in north-western Europe compared with other regions can be attributed to cattle breeders who came from the east around 5,000 years ago.

In fact, certain genes that increase the risk of MS ‘migrated’ to north-western Europe with the Yamnaya people of shepherds from the Pontic steppe, a region that includes parts of present-day Ukraine, south-western Russia and western Kazakhstan.

The authors speculate that the genes that promote multiple sclerosis may have given the shepherds a survival advantage. Most likely by protecting them from infections caused by their sheep and cattle.

“These results have astounded us all. They represent an enormous advance in our understanding of the evolution of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases”, notes William Barrie, from the University of Cambridge, quoted in the press release.

Size difference

According to the analysis, the difference in size between humans in north-western and southern Europe can also be attributed to the Yamnayas. The influence of shepherds led to a genetic predisposition to greater height.

Scientists have also linked genetic variants linked to the risk of type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease to the ancestry of Western hunter-gatherers.

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Analysis of the DNA of prehistoric inhabitants of Eurasia has also shown that lactose tolerance – the ability to digest the sugar contained in milk – appeared in Europe around 6,000 years ago. And the ability to survive better on a diet rich in vegetables was written into the genes of Europeans at the start of the Neolithic period, around 5,900 years ago.

These results do not yet concern all of the 5,000 genomes analysed, said Eske Willerslev, head of the study at the University of Copenhagen, at a press conference. According to the researcher, further analyses should reveal more about the genetic markers of autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and depression, in particular.

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