JulieOne of the largest studies till date in the field of genetic diversity stated that the children whose parents are distantly related usually grow up taller and smarter as compared to their peers. The studies also stated that may be height and intelligence is increasing with the increased number of marriages amongst the people who belong to distant parts of the world. The genetic background and health of almost more than 350,000 people from more than 100 communities across four continents have been studied. Researchers found that if an individual’s parents are from distant places, that person tends to be taller , scores higher in cognitive tests and also has a higher level of educational attainment. However in these studies no link was found between the genetic diversity and high levels of cholesterol or high blood pressure, as suggested under previous studies.
This study was funded by Medical Research Council and Nathon Richardson, head of the cellular and molecular medicine in this council, said that, “most people believed that diverse pool of genetics is a good thing but this aspect that diversity affects the height of an individual wouldn’t have been foreseen.”
Dr. Peter Joshi from university of Edinburgh and the co-author of the paper told that , “the questions which were first posed by Darwin have been answered by our research i.e the benefits of genetic diversity. He also told that we are planning to hone into the specific parts of a genome which gets most benefit of diversification of genes.
Journal ‘Nature’, published about a study in which genetic data was used to search instances where people inherited identical copies genes from their mother and father, which also indicates that their ancestors were related. This genetic relatedness was further used to study almost 16 biomedical traits. There were only four traits which were found to be related with genetic diversity and these traits were: Height, Lung Capacity, Educational attainment and general cognitive ability.
The reader in ‘Population and disease genetics’ from the University of Edinburgh, Mr. Jim Wilson, who is also an author of the study, stated that according to the studies the “outbreeding” will prove to be useful in the course of human evolution. He also stated that , “ A prehistoric man who is smarter can have a survival advantage and also it can be well imagined about the circumstances in which being tall helps you to score better chances of survival.”
The results of the study may also help in some way in explaining the “Flynn Effect” – which is about the increase in the level of intelligence from one generation to the next. It was first documented in 20th century. He also added up that certain socio economic factors such as increased levels of schooling as well as better nutrition are the primary drivers but increase in genetic diversity would also play a small role . Our studies and results alone cannot explain “The Flynn Effect” i.e the increase in intelligence from one generation to another but they will definitely contribute in doing so.
Aman
