DNA linked to COVID-19 inherited by modern humans from Neanderthals: Study

A study has claimed that major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 in modern-day humans is inherited from Neanderthals, who existed 40,000-50,000 years ago. Neanderthals are extinct subspecies of present-day humans who lived across Eurasia. It is believed that Neandertals went extinct because of competition with modern-day humans, a great change in climate, unknown disease, or a combination of all these factors. The study claimed that genes linked to coronavirus disease entered the modern human population from Neanderthals. The study identified a gene cluster on chromosome 3 as a risk locus for respiratory failure in COVID-19 infections. 

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South Asians at higher risk

According to the study, this gene set is mostly found in the South Asian population (30 percent), followed by Europeans (8 percent) and East Asians (4 percent), where the frequency of contracting the virus gets higher. The study also claimed that the gene set is completely absent in Africa. The population of Bangladesh (63 percent) among South Asians carry the highest piece of genome, at least one copy of Chromosome 3. "Currently it is not known what features in the Neanderthals-derived region confers risk for severe COVID-19 and if the effects of any such feature are specific to current coronaviruses or indeed to any other pathogens," the study said. 

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The study was carried out by Swedish geneticists Svante Paabo and Hugo Zeberg in association with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Max Planck Institute of Germany. According to figures by Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus outbreak has so far infected more than 12 million people worldwide and is responsible for nearly 5,55,000 deaths to date. As per reports, the virus originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, where exotic animals were allegedly being traded illegally. 

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