Papua New Guineans have 5% of their 'superhuman' genes from other humans

The island nation's extremely "dense" proportion of other human genes has been preserved through 50,000 years of genetic isolation .

According to a study just published in Nature Communications , genes from the ancient Denisovans have helped Papua New Guinea people have the ability to resist some diseases and adapt to some environments that can make normal people sick. often suffocate.

Papua New Guinea is an island nation in Oceania, located on an island off the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

The people of Papua New Guinea inherit some advantages in immunity and adaptation to high altitudes thanks to the genes of ancient humans Denisovans - (Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK).

'Papua New Guinea people are unique because they have been isolated since settling here more than 50,000 years ago ' - co-author François-Xavier Ricaut, biological anthropologist at the National Center for Scientific Research France (CNRS), told Live Science .

Dr. Ricaut and his colleagues analyzed the genomes of 54 people from Mount Wilhelm, living at an altitude of 2,300 - 2,700m above sea level, and 74 people from Daru Island living at an altitude of less than 100m above sea level.

They found that mutations probably inherited from Denisovans boosted the number of immune cells in the blood of lowlanders.

For example, Denisovan gene variants can affect the function of a protein called GBP2 that helps the body fight some pathogens common in lowland areas, such as the malaria parasite.

These genes may have been selected during evolution, the team said.

This is of particular value in this isolated island nation, where infectious diseases cause up to 40% of deaths in the community.

Meanwhile, highlanders have evolved mutations that increase the number of red blood cells, helping to reduce hypoxia at high altitudes that make us feel short of breath.

In fact, people in many other countries, especially in Asian countries including us, also carry the ancient human gene Denisovans in their bodies.

However, the rate of genes different from this species in Papua New Guinea people is extremely high, up to 5%. Most people in other countries only carry Neanderthals or Denisovans genes about 2% or less.

Previous studies showed that Homo sapiens - our species - moved from Africa to this island about 50,000 years ago. That may have been the time when they met and interbred with the Denisovans community here, then preserved that bloodline through little interaction with other communities around the world.

Denisovans as well as Neanderthals are the closest ancient human species to Homo sapiens. Therefore, these species can interbreed with each other in many places around the world.

Both of these heterologous ancestral species became extinct more than 30,000 years ago.