Have you ever wondered why your partner stays awake with a lark while you doze happily until noon?
According to new research, it could be thanks to Neanderthal genes.
The origins of modern humans can be traced back to Africa 300,000 years ago, but as these ancestors migrated north, they interbred with Neanderthals, and traces of their DNA can still be seen in people today. .
The study’s lead author, John Capra, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said scientists who compared ancient DNA to modern human genetics found “remarkable trends.”
They found that many of the remaining Neanderthal genes influence our body clocks and “increase our tendency to be morning people.”
Neanderthals lived at higher latitudes and farther from the equator than our African ancestors, experiencing longer days in the summer and shorter days in the winter.
Genes that make people wake up earlier “are likely able to adjust their circadian clocks more quickly to changing seasonal light patterns,” Dr. Capra said, which is why Neanderthals maximized daylight hours for hunting. He was able to utilize it to a limited extent.
Scientists have previously investigated how the circadian rhythms of insects, plants and fish have evolved with latitude. However, it has not been well studied in humans.
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Researchers wanted to see if there was a genetic reason for the differences in circadian rhythms between Neanderthals and modern humans, and found 16 mutations associated with greater “morningness”, or the tendency to rise early. .
They reasoned that because Neanderthals interbred with the ancestors of modern humans, modern humans may have inherited Neanderthal “circadian mutations.”
To test this, scientists analyzed the genes of hundreds of thousands of people in the UK Biobank and discovered a number of mutations that affect sleep preferences.
“Most surprisingly, we found that these mutants consistently increased morningness,” the researchers said.
This is consistent with what has been found in other animals that adapted to life at high latitudes, such as Neanderthals.
The study was published in Genome Biology and Evolution.
Source: news.sky.com
