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Agence France-Presse

Covid-19 patients with a snippet of Neanderthal DNA that crossed into the human genome some 60,000 years ago run a higher risk of severe complications from the disease, researchers have reported.
People infected with the new coronavirus, for example, who carry the genetic coding bequeathed by our early human cousins are three times more likely to need mechanical ventilation, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.
There are many reasons why some people with Covid-19 wind up in intensive care and other have only light symptoms, or none at all.
Advanced age, being a man, and pre-existing medical problems can all increase the odds of a serious outcome.
But genetic factors can also play a role, as the new findings makes clear.
“It is striking that the genetic heritage from Neanderthals has such tragic consequences during the current pandemic,” said co-author Svante Paabo, director of the department of genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
US scientists using DNA find there were more Neanderthals than previously thought
Recent research by the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative revealed that a genetic variant in a particular region of chromosome 3 – one of 23 chromosomes in the human genome – is associated with more severe forms of the disease.
That same region was known to harbour genetic code of Neanderthal origins, so Paabo and co-author Hugo Zeberg, also from Max Planck, decided to look for a link with Covid-19.
They found that a Neanderthal individual from southern Europe carried an almost identical genetic segment, which spans some 50,000 so-called base pairs, the primary building blocks of DNA.
Tellingly, two Neanderthals found in southern Siberia, along with a specimen from another early human species that also wandered Eurasia, the Denisovans, did not carry the telltale snippet.


Modern humans and Neanderthals could have inherited the gene fragment from a common ancestor some half-million years ago, but it is far more likely to have entered the homo sapiens gene pool through more recent interbreeding, the researchers concluded.
The potentially dangerous string of Neanderthal DNA is not evenly distributed today across the globe, the study showed.
Ancient Chinese skulls offer strong evidence that Neanderthals reached East Asia
Some 16 per cent of Europeans carry it, and about half the population across South Asia, with the highest proportion – 63 per cent – found in Bangladesh.
This could help explain why individuals of Bangladeshi descent living in Britain are twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as the general population, the authors speculate.
In East Asia and Africa the gene variant is virtually absent.
About two per cent of DNA in non-Africans across the globe originate with Neanderthals, earlier studies have shown.
Denisovan remnants are also widespread but more sporadic, comprising less than one per cent of the DNA among Asians and Native Americans, and about five per cent of aboriginal Australians and the people of Papua New Guinea.


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Coronavirus pandemic

People with Neanderthal DNA at higher risk for severe Covid-19

Genetic factors can put people at higher risk for severe Covid-19. File photo: Shutterstock

Modern humans and Neanderthals could have inherited the gene fragment from a common ancestor some half-million years ago. File photo: Handout

US scientists using DNA find there were more Neanderthals than previously thought

A drawing provided by Abel Grau Guerrero shows mostly vegetarian Spanish Neanderthals munching on mushrooms, pine nuts and moss. Scientists looking into their DNA now believe there are more Neanderthals than previously thought. Photo: Abel Grau Guerrero via AP

FILE - This Friday, March 20, 2009 file photo shows reconstructions of a Neanderthal man named "N", left, and woman called "Wilma", right, at the Neanderthal museum in Mettmann, Germany. Trying to explain cases of ancient cannibalism among our evolutionary forerunners is a vexing scientific challenge. A new study released Thursday, April 6, 2017 in the Journal Scientific Reports suggests that whatever the reasons, they were probably not hunting each other just for food. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

epa06107014 Co-director of excavations in Atapuerca Eudald Carbonell (L) attends a press conference held to present the Neanderthals remains found in Atapuerca, in the province of Burgos, Spain, 24 July 2017. The discovery completes the sequence of the human evolution in Atapuerca, with samples of every species living in Europe since a million years ago to nowadays. EPA/Santi Otero

Fleshing out the past: ancient Chinese skulls offer strong evidence that Neanderthals reached East Asia

Bone patterns in Xuchang Man’s skull matched to those found in Neanderthals. Photo: Handout

The archeological site at Xuchang, Henan province

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World

Coronavirus

Health & Medicine


Group of genes passed down from extinct human cousins linked with a higher risk for severe Covid-19
In South Asia, roughly 30 per cent of people have gene cluster, compared to roughly one in six Europeans



A group of genes passed down from extinct human cousins is linked with a higher risk for severe Covid-19, researchers say,


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

People with Neanderthal DNA at higher risk for severe Covid-19

Group of genes passed down from extinct human cousins linked with a higher risk for severe Covid-19 In South Asia, roughly 30 per cent of people have gene cluster, compared to roughly one in six Europeans

Group of genes passed down from extinct human cousins linked with a higher risk for severe Covid-19

In South Asia, roughly 30 per cent of people have gene cluster, compared to roughly one in six Europeans