Discover twin village secrets

It took almost two decades for the scientific community to explain the cause of common twins in a southern Brazilian town.

Over the years, the phenomenon of twins has mysteriously occurred in the town of Cândido Godói in southern Brazil. On an area of ​​3.8 km2, 80 families produce 38 pairs of twins. This caused people in the area to doubt that there was anything particularly hidden in the water, or even someone who was inclined to hypothesis that this was the product of Josef Mengele , nicknamed 'The Deathly Doctors' for making these Brutal experiments on Nazi prisoners and Jews.

Cândido Godói twin town in southern Brazil. (Photo Connect)

After a period of discussion, a group of experts dismissed the mysterious color reasoning above.The New York Times quoted Ursula Matte, a geneticist in Porto Alegre (Brazil), saying the results of a gene analysis of about 30 families in Cândido Godua show that a particular gene is present regularly in the genome. transmission of pregnant mothers. The phenomenon of twins appears more intense due to the high rate of inbreeding in this German-speaking immigrant community. Dr. Matte is also the first scientist to record an unusually high percentage of twin births in Spain since the 1990s. Thanks to her, the world learned from 1990 to 1994, 10% of births at This area is twins , while the proportion of Brazil is not even 1% in the same period.

Prior to the studies of Dr. Matte, residents in the area said, 'The death doctor' Mengele appeared in southern Brazil, posing as a veterinarian in the 1960s, a time when that started for the phenomenon of twins. An Argentinian journalist in 2008 published a book based on the theory that Mengele conducted experiments on women in Cândido Godói, making them born pairs of blond and light-eyed children. However, Dr. Matte analyzed 6,615 birth certificates over 80 years and identified the phenomenon of twins that existed since the 1930s. Her team, with the participation of 20 scientists, also analyzed the source. domestic water provided to the town but found nothing unusual.

While extracting birth certificates, scientists found that the most populous twins were concentrated in São Pedro in the town of Cândido Godói. After reviewing them and conducting genetic analyzes, Matte's group drew the conclusion, that genes play a key role in the twin phenomenon.