NTY: Mitochondrial adaptation to cold

[Guest guest]

I always kind of THOUGHT this but now someone has actually

analyzed some DNA ... It's a good article, I think. I'd guess all

the folk that lived in the northern climes have more than

one adaptation to cold though.

-- Heidi

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/science/09COLD.html

A team of California geneticists has found that many of the world's peoples are

genetically adapted to the cold because their ancestors lived in northern

climates during the Ice Age. The genetic change affects basic body metabolism

and may influence susceptibility to disease and to the risks of the

calorie-laden modern diet.

The finding also breaks ground in showing that the human population has

continued to adapt to forces of natural selection since the dispersal from its

ancestral homeland in Africa some 50,000 years ago.