Tibetan Gene

Saey, Tina H. "Tibetans Live High Life Thanks to Extinct Human Relatives."Science News. Science News, 2 July 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2015.

For years it was known that Tibetan people had a gene that allowed for them to deal with high altitudes. It is now believed that they got this gene from the Denisovans, an extinct relative of humans. The gene that allows the Tibetans to do this is a variant called the EPAS1 gene. This gene probably came from interbreeding with the Denisovans. Since the Tibetan plateau is 4000 feet above sea level and has at points 40 percent of the oxygen, this gene would be crucial.

This article relates to our current unit, because of its display of natural selection. Because certain humans, had the gene they were able to survive and pass on this gene, while their counter parts died. Because lack of oxygen highly affects mothers giving birth, if a mother did not have this gene, there was a high likely hood that in the high climate of Tibet that they would die. This means that they would not be able to contribute to the gene pool. Mothers who had this gene could contribute to the gene pool. This meant that the allele frequency went way up for this gene.