Medical researchers, doctors and census-takers may lump Latinos or Hispanics into one group, but a giant study of Mexican genetics shows there’s really no such thing. Mexicans themselves show such extreme diversity that someone from the dry north is genetically as different from someone from the Yucatan as a European is from an East Asian. The findings, published in the journal Science, are important for medical research and healthcare, the researchers said. In this study, we realized that for disease classification it also matters what type of Native American ancestry you have,” said Carlos Bustamante, a professor of genetics at Stanford University. “In terms of genetics, its the difference between a neighborhood and a precise street address. Before the Spanish conquerers arrived in the 16th century, Mexico was inhabited by Native Americans who had carved out their own, often isolated, kingdoms. These genetic differences show up even today, the team at Stanford, the University of California, San Francisco and the Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine found.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:10:55 +0000
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