Some Neanderthals felt more pain from spear piercing than any similar pain from fire, cold or blunt force – and scientists now know the gene they passed on.
In recent months, geneticists have linked a range of modern conditions – from vulnerability to Covid to nose size – to humanity’s DNA inheritance from Neanderthals.
Three versions of this newly understood ‘pain gene’, SCN9A, can make people who have it feel more hurt by sharp stimuli, researchers have found, with the gene appearing at a ‘high frequency’ in those of Native American descent.
The group studied genetic data from over 5,900 individuals across Latin America, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Three versions of the SCN9A gene can make people who have it feel more hurt by sharp urges, researchers found, with the gene appearing at a ‘high frequency’ among those of Native American descent. Gene begins in prehistoric Neanderthals (above)
The three versions of the SCN9A gene – called D1908G, V991L and M932L – were found at much higher frequency among those of Native American descent (yellow-orange bars in the graph above), much more so than Europeans (blue ) or African (red). ) origin, according to the study
Peruvians, whose genetic makeup typically had the highest percentage of indigenous blood (an ‘average Native American ancestry’ of 66.1 percent), were more likely to have any of the three SCN9A variants.
While more research is needed, scientists suspect that these SCN9A genes may have been passed down in an evolutionary exchange.
Sharp aside, scientists suspect the gene “may have somehow helped people cope with the cold.”
About 30 percent of the thousands of Latin American study participants had the most common variant of the SCN9A gene, D1908G.
And roughly 13 percent had the other two versions of the gene, called V991L and M932L, respectively.
Study participants from Peru had the highest odds of carrying the D1908G variant at 42.3 percent, with participants from Mexico having the highest odds of the V991L and M932L variants at nearly 23 percent each.
In contrast, the Brazilian test participants had the lowest percentage of Native American ancestry, at just 9 percent, which appears to have translated into the lowest percentage of the three ‘pain gene’ variants.
“In 2020,” according to the study’s lead author, French geneticist Pierre Faux, “another group of researchers studied people of European descent and linked these Neanderthal gene variants to increased sensitivity to pain.”
“We extend these findings by studying Latin Americans and showing that these Neanderthal genetic variants are much more common in people of Native American ancestry,” Faux said. Living science.
“We also show the type of pain that these variants affect,” Faux added, “which was not known before.”
All three variations of the SCN9A gene help make a protein in the body that sends sodium (salt) into cells, thereby helping send pain signals from pain-detecting nerves.
On average, participants had 46 percent Native American ancestry, 49.6 percent European ancestry, and 4.4 percent African ancestry. But these proportions varied significantly, both by individual and by nationality. Peru and Mexico retained the most indigenous genetic heritage
All three variations of the SCN9A gene help make a protein in the body that sends sodium (salt) into cells, thereby helping send pain signals from pain-detecting nerves.
To assess responses to these genetic responses to pain, 1,623 Colombian participants volunteered for the ‘Quantitative Sensory Testing,’ according to the new report, published Tuesday in the journal. Biology of communications.
A portion of each participant’s skin surfaces were sensitized using mustard oil before being tested for ‘heat pain, mechanical pain and pressure pain’.
They were then tested with push-ups from measured filaments—and participants with any of the three Neanderthal gene variants usually couldn’t hold on long enough for the filament to push very far.
“When we tested the participants’ pain threshold by applying pressure, heat or cold,” said Faux, “the gene variants did not affect pain sensitivity, so the Neanderthal variants only affected their response to needle pressure.”
Several mail-order DNA services, including 23andMe and tellmeGen, offer testing to those who are curious about their Neanderthal heritage but less interested in undergoing needlestick tests themselves.
“We know that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred somewhere around 50,000 to 70,000 years ago,” Faux said, “and that modern humans first crossed from Eurasia into the Americas 15-20,000 years ago.”
Faux, a senior researcher at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, speculates that this prehistoric mixing occurred before these nomadic groups migrated across the Bering Strait from Asia to Alaska.
“The high frequency of Neanderthal variants in people of Native American ancestry,” he said, “could potentially be explained by a scenario where Neanderthals carrying these variants happened to interbreed with modern humans who eventually immigrated to the Americas.”
“Modern humans who first arrived in North America would have had to deal with harsh, cold conditions,” Faux explained.
“So it may be that these variants have other effects beyond pain – for example, they may have somehow helped people cope with the cold.”
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