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Africa: New study on gene may lead to secret to long life

Despite disease and famine, Africans have higher chances of living a longer life, a new study has revealed, reports CISA.

The new study indicates that Africans have genetic diversity more than Europeans or Asians.

Researchers sequenced the complete genomes of five southern Africans over the age of 80-Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and four Bushmen from Namibia.

"On average, we found as many genetic differences between two Bushmen than between a European and an Asian," said Dr. Vanessa Hayes of the University of New South Wales in Australia, who worked on the study reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"This research now provides us with the tools to read the story of human evolution and specifically the story of disease evolution."

"To know how genes affect health we need to see the full range of human genetic variation, and Southern Africa is the place to look," said Webb Miller of Pennsylvania State University.

The team looked at some of the oldest Africans, both in terms of age and genetic roots. Tutu is an ethnic Bantu, while the four Bushmen all come from hunter-gatherer societies in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia.

"The Bushmen participants have reached their advanced age despite living under harsh conditions due to periodical famine and untreated illness," the researchers wrote.

Africa, the source of all modern humans, has more genetic diversity and this is attributed to different peoples who stayed and evolved there while Europeans, Asians and other groups arose from smaller populations that migrated from the continent.

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TAGS: Africa disease and famine secret to long life Archbishop Desmond Tutu human evolution genetic diversity

[02/22/2010]

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