Latin Americans inherited diabetes gene risk from Neanderthals

Neanderthals may have passed down a gene variant to Latin Americans, putting them at a high risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

The largest genome-wide association study involving more than 8,000 Mexicans and other Latin Americans studied many genes in individuals and tried to find links to certain traits.

The high risk gene called SLC16A11 has been found in around half of those with recent Native American ancestry, including Latin Americans. The variant was also found in 20 percent of East Asians, but was rare in Europe and Africa.

"To date, genetic studies have largely used samples from people of European or Asian ancestry, which makes it possible to miss culprit genes that are altered at different frequencies in other populations," said co-author Jose Florez, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts.

According to Florez, by expanding the scope of research to look at Latin American samples they have found the strongest genetic risk factor discovered to date, which accounts for 20 percent of that population's increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

Earlier research has shown that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans nearly 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, and researchers believe this is how SLC16A11 was introduced.

Altering the levels of SLC16A11 protein can change the amount of a fat that has been involved in the risk of diabetes. The study, published in the journal Nature, suggests that the SLC16A11 could be involved in the transport of an unknown metabolite the affects the fat level in cells.

[BBC] [Nature]