Nick Wade in The New York Times is reporting on a new paper which will come out in Science tomorrow which investigates the evolution of genes implicated in adaption to higher altitudes among Tibets. I've posted on the genetics of this topic before, it obviously is of great interest. The major new finding is that these adaptations seem to have spread among Tibetans very recently, on the order of 3,000 years or so. Here's the relevant section on the genetic architecture:
The Beijing team analyzed the 3 percent of the human genome in which known genes lie in 50 Tibetans from two villages at an altitude of 14,000 feet and in 40 Han Chinese from Beijing, which is 160 feet above sea level. Many genes exist in a population in alternative versions. The scientists found some 30 genes in which a version rare among the Han had become common among ...
