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In reply to the discussion: "God ‘blessed’ with me a platform on Fox News to defend myself" [View all]Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)The researchers compared genetic data from fossils of Neanderthals and another group of ancient human ancestors called Denisovans to data from modern-day cancer patients. They found evidence of Neanderthal and Denisovan viruses in the modern human DNA, suggesting that the viruses originated in our common ancestors more than half a million years ago.
This latest finding, reported in Current Biology, will enable scientists to further investigate possible links between ancient viruses and modern diseases including HIV and cancer, and was supported by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (MRC).
Around 8% of human DNA is made up of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), DNA sequences from viruses which pass from generation to generation. This is part of the 90% of our DNA with no known function, sometimes called junk DNA.
I wouldnt write it off as junk just because we dont know what it does yet, said Dr Gkikas Magiorkinis, an MRC Fellow at Oxford Universitys Department of Zoology. Under certain circumstances, two junk viruses can combine to cause disease weve seen this many times in animals already. ERVs have been shown to cause cancer when activated by bacteria in mice with weakened immune systems.
http://historyoftheancientworld.com/2013/11/neanderthal-viruses-found-in-modern-humans/
see....you are on to something