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Genome of the Tyrolean Iceman reveals unusually high Anatolian farmer ancestry
- a_bonobo 3y agoI'm sceptical of those SNPs linked with baldness etc. SNPs don't cause phenotypes, they're associated with them. The guy has been dead for ~5000 years, but they're looking at SNPs linked with these phenotypes today; surely over 5000 years not all of those associations remain.
- abstractbeliefs 3y agoSure, but on the other hand, he was bald. I would consider that a strong indication at least that the authors aren't talking completely out their asses.
- pierat 3y ago5000 years at 50y/human is only 100 lifetimes back. That really isn't that far.
- semiquaver 3y agoMore like 250 generations though.
- pfisherman 3y agoI wonder if that is long enough to significantly impact LD structure.
- pfisherman 3y agoSNPs are causal in that they can be thought of as perturbations of genes that occur prior to the genesis of the phenotype. I think what you might be trying to say is (1) the presence of a SNP may not be sufficient for the occurrence of a phenotype, or (2) another SNP in high LD may be the true causal SNP.
- astrange 3y agoGenetics is remarkably lax about correlation != causation, maybe because they can't do experiments. This leads online amateurs to have a lot of overly confident opinions they got from eg twin studies, which are not nearly as reliable as they think. Imagine the kind of inaccurate results you'd get by comparing two versions of your code with GWAS instead of reading the commit history.
- niemandhier 3y agoGenetics does experiments all the time, and many of them are geared towards understanding causality. Knock-Out studies are all about determining the consequences of a genome change.
- dillydogg 3y agoThey are probably talking about population genetics, which doesn't really allow for experiments
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- wuming2 3y agoSurprised they were able to extract reliable information. I remember reading after it was finally returned to Italy body has been badly damaged and polymerized (“plastified”) by a careless attempt at preservation in Austria.
- spidersenses 3y ago[flagged]
- hknmtt 3y agoi was actually expecting that. now they just put him in turkey, but maybe next year they will make another test and move him to the south a bit.
- sveme 3y agoThe origin of the Indo-Europeans is on both the Anatolian plains and the area north of the Caucasus. Nearly all of us (with the likely exception of the Basques) are quite recent (~8000 years ago) immigrants from those areas.
- qwytw 3y agoLanguage has relatively little to do with genetics in Europe. Even amongst Basques pre Indo European DNA was mostly replaced on the paternal line. The survival of their language has probably more to due with their subsequent isolation than with anything else. Even the Etruscans (who somehow managed to survive while being surrounded by Indo European cultures on all sides) have about the same proportion of steppe DNA as other Italians.
- totetsu 3y agoseek help. this isnt healthy.
- inglor_cz 3y ago[flagged]
- zo1 3y agoNot OP, but lighten up too! I was gonna post here with a joke about Wakanda before realizing I'm not in the mood for a backlash or huge debate. If we can't joke about race and make criticism of the current racialized status quo we'll never get a true multi racial society. And I'm saying this from a country that prides itself on being a "Rainbow nation" yet has anti white laws in legislation.
- mjfl 3y agoaren't Sardinians quite pale?
- sph 3y agoCompared to whom? To people from Sicily and Calabria, maybe. To Northern Europeans or even Northern Italians, no way.
- mjfl 3y agoPaler than me. and I am of Irish/French ancestry. Though my French side is very 'Med'. Sardinians are paler than other Mediterranean people.
- darkclouds 3y agoChemicals in the diet and environment along with other environmental phenomena can switch genes on and off (gene expression) which can alter peoples appearance and habits. Vit D is one such example of gene expression. "The actions of the vitamin D hormone 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) are mediated by the vitamin D receptor (VDR), a ligand-activated transcription factor that functions to control gene expression" [1] So with this in mind, and knowing there are bacteria that will pretty much survive in any environment, consuming minerals which reduces availability for human consumption, how much of a humans characteristics are controlled by diet and the environment? I would say alot. For example here in the UK, over the last 50 years, I have witnessed the reduction of dense muscle and fat in Caucasians, which in extreme will make it impossible to swim as they sink, a phenomena still seen in Black people today. [2] Our diets are changing, and due to global food companies, food store standardisation, seed companies, agrichemical and govt legislation, people have changed quite considerably in the western world over the last 100 years, simply from the change in their diet! [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879406 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879406 [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28561485/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28561485/
- mjfl 3y ago
- madaxe_again 3y agoEven to the modern day, there's a decent sized Anatolian genetic influence in Austria - mostly down to the Ottoman war, and deserting and/or raping janissaries. Case in point, me - I have an anatolian ancestor (unknown) from the late 17th century on that side of my family.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Jun8 3y agoYou may be right about rapes as cause of gene mixing in Austria but Janissaries were not Turkish so we’re not originally from Anatolia. They consisted of boys enslaved from mostly Eastern Europe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary#:~:text=Janissaries%20began%20as%20elite%20corps,incorporated%20into%20the%20Ottoman%20army https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary#:~:text=Janissarie.... They were the elite corps so the Ottoman army consisted of many other troops who did come from Anatolia.
- joeyo 3y agoThe Ottomans were also not originally from Anatolia ...
- Tagbert 3y agoDo you mean Turkish speakers? It is true the Turkish is part of a group of languages from Central Asia that would not have been present in Anatolia 5000 years ago.
- madaxe_again 3y agoRight. However those boys typically had Anatolian ancestry for the same aforementioned reasons - mine appears to have come via west Africa, and for a kid who’s neither us nor them, being a slave mercenary is a decent alternative.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]