Neanderthal gene linked to increased pain sensitivity

Amazing stuff! What else did we inherit? Let's get rid e.g. of the sneeze gene! :-)

"... Despite their rough and tumble existence, Neanderthals had a biological predisposition to a heightened sense of pain, finds a first-of-its kind genome study published in Current Biology on 23 July ... Researchers have access to only a few Neanderthal genomes, and most of those have been sequenced at a low resolution. This has made it hard to identify mutations that evolved after their lineage split from that of humans some 500,000–750,000 years ago. But in the past few years, [researchers] have generated three high-quality Neanderthal genomes from DNA found in caves in Croatia and Russia. ... To investigate how mutations might have altered Neanderthals’ nerves, [researchers] expressed their version of NaV1.7 in frog eggs and human kidney cells — model systems useful for characterizing proteins that control neural impulses. "

Neanderthal gene linked to increased pain sensitivity People who have inherited nerve-altering mutations from the ancient hominins tend to experience more pain.