Ancient human DNA hints at why multiple sclerosis affects so many northern Europeans today
January 10, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ancient DNA helps explain why northern Europeans have a higher risk of multiple sclerosis than other ancestries: It's a genetic legacy of horseback-riding cattle herders who swept into the region about 5,000 years ago.
The findings come from a huge project to compare modern DNA with that culled from ancient humans' teeth and bones — allowing scientists to trace both prehistoric migration and disease-linked genes that tagged along.
When a Bronze Age people called the Yamnaya moved from the steppes of what are now Ukraine and Russia into northwestern Europe, they carried gene v...
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