In light of a recent lecture given by lead Harvard population geneticist David Reich (PBUH) which you can watch here, it would seem apparent that the alleles encoding for greater immunity to infection from HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) the retrovirus responsible for the disease known as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome) formerly known as GRIDS (Gay related immune deficiency) back when the disease became more widespread in the eighties.
Without going into too much detail, the virus works by hijacking white blood cell’s ribosomes, producing an over abundance of cytokines ergo halting the production of antibodies from T-blood cells and macrophages, leaving the immune system susceptible to otherwise non life threatening pathogens.
However some populations are more susceptible than others.
In the late nineties a link between AIDS progression and the CCR5 gene was discovered by a Harvard team of which David Reich (PBUH) was a part of. You can read the paper here.
Thanks to the recent explosion in available ancient dna samples since then. It would appear the gene may have spread with populations from the Pontic steppe five millennia ago.
Which would’ve led to greater immunity to diseases such as bubonic plague caused by the yersinia pestis bacteria. Giving them an edge over local EEF populations whom they assimilated.
Unsurprisingly the most homozygous population today are Swedes.
The most Indo-European Europeans.
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The gene itself underwent strong selective sweeps in the past seven centuries , coincidentally around the time of the Black Death. The study in question hasn’t been published yet, but based off this sneak peak it appears the alleles first pop up in the khvalynsk culture in the samara region, a contender for the early PIE urheimet. It later spread with the ancestors of corded ware people, who also as it turned out spread plague to the local EEF. Due to the paucity in Irish ancient dna samples, we don’t have much to go on, but it’s safe to say the gene arrived in the Bronze Age with Rhenish and Maritime beakers from Britanny. As it turns out homozygotes for the derived CCR5-Delta 32 allele positively correlates with steppe ancestry.
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| 12.4% not great, not terrible. |
As you can see one of these Middle Eastern countries is not like the other, granted Ashkenazi Jews do bear some European admixture, mostly from a Southern European like source, have a higher prevalence of homozygotes, despite only around ~15% Northern/Eastern European like admixture.
Perhaps the high frequency of AJ belonging to subclades of haplogroup K might have something to do with it? A study over a decade ago claimed that mitochondria had a role in aiding against AIDS progression. Haplogroups H3,K,X,I,W showing greater resistance. J and U5 less resistance.
As for what causes the outright immunity, I have no idea and I hope they explain why in the study, otherwise people may start getting the wrong idea and start claiming Jews are just European converts, which of course they’re not.
As for the lucky 12.4% Irish whom are completely immune to HIV, I unfortunately am not one of them. Nice.
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