Neanderthals are to blame for our allergies

Next time your allergies flare up, go ahead and blame a neanderthal.
Two new studies, published last Thursday, have linked some of our most common allergies to Neanderthal DNA. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens crossed paths, and DNA, in the past.
Two teams out of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and the Pasteur Institute in Paris conducted the research based on DNA collected in the 1,000 genomes project. Cross checking human DNA, with that of the neanderthals, and a third kind of early human, the Denisovans, they looked at the genes responsible for the immune system.
Out of all the genes that make up our immune system over time, there were three genes that were a constant between all three groups. These genes specifically fall into place when there is a foreign body in our system. It calls up the innate immunity response and they initiate cells to react and attack the outsider. But those same genes that help fight off infections may play a role in causing some reactions as well.
Pollen, hay fever, animal hair – all those common allergies many people suffer from each year, might just be left overs from that Neanderthal DNA in our systems as well. Those same innate immunity responses can sometimes kick into overdrive and cause our bodies to be overly sensitive to these outside stimuli, and develop even more allergies over time.
According to Janet Kelso from the Max Planck Institute, there is still some debate whether these genes are still helping modern humans at all. They could just be the cause of our allergies.

 

As our human ancestors moved from Africa to the rest of the world, they met and crossbred with the Neanderthals living in Eurasia at the time. They had over 200,000 years to adapt to the world around them. With their hearty pathogens, the Neanderthals ability to withstand many diseases that had cropped up over time gave a boost to the Homo sapiens DNA when they merged with and gave birth to the ancestors that would carry their genes to modern times.
There’s still a lot of research to be done to see just how much Neanderthal and human DNA is linked together, but as we go forward with the 1,000 Genome Project and other studies, it would appear we are not so different from our distant cousins than we originally thought.