Logo 24G
0 0,00

Genetics and ancestors

Most of us living in the world today come from what was once a relatively small population. The past 200 years, and more and more today, this exciting fact has piqued the curiosity of many people. We like to know what regions we come from and where our previous generations lived. The DNA we carry is marked by a great diversity of places where our ancestors have settled, as well as by different historical episodes.

 

History in our genes

 A great variety of fragments of your genetic material stores a vast amount of information about your origins: it’s like a backup copy that the human species has stored safely in our genes. If we stop to think about it, it makes a lot of sense, given that it is one of the keys to our evolution. So, for example, the great pandemics of human history, such as the Great War famine, are in our DNA. And, of course, the current pandemic will also leave traces in our DNA. So we can say that this information stored in our genes becomes a survival mechanism of the species itself.

 

European ancestors

 But going back to the history of humanity, and taking advantage of the fact that 24Genetics is a European company, let’s review some interesting facts about the old continent. More than seven thousand years ago, there were practically only three populations in this region:

  • Communities of hunter-gatherers, which would constitute the original population from which most Europeans descend.
  • Siberian communities, related to Eurasia
  • And the first farming populations, which in reality also descended from the hunter-gatherer community, as described in an interesting genetic study (1).

Ilustration 1. Lazaridis, I., et al.

 

 Exogamy

 But if we go back even a few thousand years, we can find indications of how Neanderthal communities interbred with Sapiens communities. And populations of non-African origin would be the result of such admixture (2).

 

HapMap a research

 As you can see, the work of genetics in the search for our origins is fundamental. New research projects constantly appear worldwide that provide valuable information about our roots, all of them of great importance and scientific solvency. One of the most famous studies to date has been the HapMap project, which carried out in 2002 as one of the most extensive investigations into the variability of human genetics and how it is modulated in the different populations that inhabit the earth. This project has had and continues to impact disease research or drug response considerably. (3,4,5)

In the 24Genetics ancestry study, we analyze more than 1,500 regions worldwide, making it one of the most extensive reports on the market. We analyze dozens of generations before you, giving you a historical map that goes back more than seven hundred years. Come and find out where in the world your DNA lived. Order your test here

 

 

Bibliography

  1. Lazaridis, I., et al. Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans. Nature 513, 409–413 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13673
  2. Sankararaman, S., et al. (2014). The genomic landscape of Neanderthal ancestry in present-day humans. Nature, 507(7492), 354–357. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12961
  3. National Human Genome Research Institute, (2021). https://www.genome.gov/acerca-del-proyecto-internacional-hapmap#al-1
  4. The International HapMap Consortium., Genotyping centres: Perlegen Sciences., Frazer, K. et al. A second generation human haplotype map of over 3.1 million SNPs. Nature 449, 851–861 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06258
  5. Mahajan, A., et al .(2014). Genome-wide trans-ancestry meta-analysis provides insight into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes susceptibility. Nature genetics, 46(3), 234–244. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2897

Written by Dr. André Flores Bello

Geneticist

Macular degeneration and genetics

Macular degeneration is an eye disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Although age is a major risk factor, genetics also plays a role in its development. In fact, some forms of macular degeneration are related to specific genetic mutations, which can be...

read more

Rare Diseases

Rare diseases are characterized by their low prevalence, which is defined as the number of people in a specific group who suffer from a certain disease at a specific time.  While there is no single definition for the term "rare disease," they are all based on the...

read more

Obesity and genetics

Obesity is defined as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that can be detrimental to health (1). Therefore, some of the main questions revolving around it concern whether obesity is genetic or hereditary. Among the different existing methods to measure and...

read more

The influence of genetics on intracranial aneurysms

It’s important to understand the factors that can put brain health at risk. Research has shown that both environmental and genetic factors can increase the risk of an intracranial aneurysm, a weakened area in a blood vessel in the brain that causes it to dilate or...

read more

Primary biliary cirrhosis: a genetic liver disorder

Primary biliary cirrhosis, also known as primary biliary cholangitis, is a disease characterized by progressive destruction of liver cells, which can lead to a number of serious complications. It is known that there may be genetic susceptibility in the development of...

read more

What role do genetics play in rheumatoid arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis falls into a very broad group of pathologies called autoimmune diseases. These chronic conditions are characterized by the immune system attacking its own tissues and organs, which can occur anywhere in the body.  The exact cause of autoimmune...

read more

Wilms tumor and genetics

The World Health Organization estimates that more than three hundred thousand children are diagnosed with cancer worldwide each year [2].   Wilms tumor is one of the most common childhood renal cancers, although its incidence is not too high: 1 in 10,000 children...

read more
    0
    Cart
    Your cart is empty
      Calculate Shipping
      Apply Coupon