Human Immune Systems Got a Boost From Ancient Ancestors (8 of 9) (IMAGE)
Caption
The researchers noticed the alleles of archaic origin share several distinct genetic characteristics. Analysis of all modern alleles identified several more with identical characteristics, indicating they too have come from admixture with archaic humans. Taken together, these findings show that archaic HLA alleles, by frequency, represent more than 50% of modern-day alleles in Europe and Asia, and as much as 95 percent in some populations from Oceania. Some of the archaic alleles were also brought to Africa through back-migrations that occurred after the admixture with archaic humans. For more information, please see figure 4 in the manuscript. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Aug. 25, 2011, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. L. Abi-Rached of Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, CA, and colleagues was titled, "The Shaping of Modern Human Immune Systems by Multiregional Admixture with Archaic Humans.”
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