By Maggie Fox, NBC NewsA scan of all the mutations in the human gene map shows something surprising – people of European descent are evolving fast, and not for the better.
The study finds that in the past 5,000 years, European-Americans have developed a huge batch of potentially harmful genetic mutations – many more than African-Americans.
The study, published in the journal Nature, may help explain why so many people develop diseases even though they don’t have common genetic mutations. It can also help explain why different people have so many different reactions to the same drug, said Joshua Akey of the University of Washington in Seattle who led the study. (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/SiteManagement/Newsletters/Assets/Photos/Facebook-icon2.gif) Follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/NBCNewsHealth)
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It likely has to do with population explosion, Akey said. European populations expanded after the Ice Age ended and prosperous agricultural societies emerged. “The number of mutations that exist is directly attributable to the population growth that happened in the last 5,000 years,” Akey told NBC News.
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