Bajau have evolved bigger spleens to hunt underwater

[Vanhelsing]

PALEY/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

This study has caused some debate recently over "helicopter research", a term given to scientists from rich countries lacking ethics, bypassing regulations and not considering local needs.

By Elizabeth Pennisi

Now, researchers have found that Indonesia’s Bajau people, who for generations have spent the majority of their days diving and hunting underwater, also have genetic adaptations for their unusual lifestyle. These “sea nomads” carry a gene variant that seems to lead to unusually large spleens that can supply an extra boost of oxygenated red blood cells on demand.

[Using a portable ultrasound machine, she measured the organ in 59 Bajau and 34 people from a nearby farming community. The Bajau’s spleens were 50% larger than those of their land-based neighbors on average, she and her colleagues report today in Cell./QUOTE]

Ilardo then compared DNA—sequenced from saliva swabs—from the two groups. She found that the Bajau had 25 genes that differed from both the farmers and a large earlier study of Han Chinese. ......One such gene, PDE10A, has been shown to affect thyroid activity in mice, which in turn affects spleen size.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/indonesian-divers-have-evolved-bigger-spleens-hunt-underwater

 

[vocalneal]

I see a new income stream for competition cyclists looking for an edge? Spleen transplants?