The Suicide Neanderthal Blonde

You won't believe it, but the suicide blonde was Neanderthal! A new research has found that some Neanderthals were perhaps red haired and white skinned, just like modern Europeans are. "I am quite sure this variant arose like the red hair variants in modern Europeans", said lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the University of Barcelona.

"In the cases of both Neanderthals and modern Europeans, the gene mutation that caused fairer complexions spread only after the respective populations migrated from Africa.", he added.

His team discovered in Neanderthal DNA samples a previously unknown mutation of the MC1R gene. The same gene encodes in modern humans a protein controlling the melanin synthesis, the pigment that gives hair, skin and eye coloration and defends the body against UV radiation. Mutations in this gene are known to lower the melanin amount in modern humans, resulting light skin and red hair. Still, the mutation found in Neanderthals does not coincide with any found in modern humans.

The Neanderthal mutant gene was checked in living cells to assess its effect. It inhibited the melanin synthesis, inducing in its Neanderthal owner light-colored hair and skin. The investigated DNA belonged to Neanderthals encountered in Italy and Spain. "European [humans] have quite a lot of variation in this gene—not only red hair variants but also others. The Neanderthals, being there at least 400,000 [years], likely accumulated ten times more variation.", said Lalueza-Fox, pointing to the fact that modern humans entered Europe 40,000 years ago, while Neanderthals inhabited the old continent 400,000 to 28,000 years ago.

Still, the author omitted the fact that researches revealed the origin of light-skinned people of today’s Europe in western/central Asia. Those 40,000 years old European Homo sapiens were rather black. "It's not surprising that there would be a Neanderthal-specific MC1R variant that results in a partial loss of function (and thus lighter skin and hair). Similar mutations have arisen independently in different modern human populations.", said James Noonan, a geneticist at the Yale University School of Medicine, not involved in this research.

"A number of genes that affect human skin color are still changing and spreading through Europe and Asia. The particular genes that affects skin color are different in Europe and Asia, but in both places, fairer complexions appear to be the result of broken versions of these genes. This paper suggests that Neanderthals were light, or were getting light, in the same way, i.e., by selection for slightly broken genes", commented Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, not involved in this study.

Many put the spread of fair genes on the natural selection. In the Northern clime, there is "less sunlight and so less need for darker skin pigmentation to protect against UV-induced damage," Noonan said.

Others believe that an accelerated rate of the spread for these genes could be linked to sexual selection. "Both processes took place independently—that's the reason the Neanderthal variant is not present in modern humans. The new find offers no evidence of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals", said Lalueza-Fox.

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