If You Are White And Have Type O Blood — Your DNA Just Revealed Where You Really Come From

Does type O blood reveal where you really come from? Popular claims say yes. The DNA says something far more interesting. In this documentary, we trace the story of the O blood group from a WWI battlefield to Neanderthal bones in a Spanish cave, and on to ancient European genomes. Researchers have found that the genetic change behind type O appears to be older than the split between modern humans and Neanderthals. Estimates from ancient DNA also suggest that Europe's Stone Age hunter-gatherers were more likely to be type O than any European population alive today. REFERENCES: Hirszfeld L, Hirszfeld H. Serological differences between the blood of different races: the result of researches on the Macedonian front. The Lancet. 1919;194(5016):675–679. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)48686-7 ✔ Lalueza-Fox C, Gigli E, de la Rasilla M, Fortea J, Rosas A, Bertranpetit J, Krause J. Genetic characterization of the ABO blood group in Neandertals. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 2008;8:342. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-342 ✔ Ségurel L, Thompson EE, Flutre T, et al. The ABO blood group is a trans-species polymorphism in primates. PNAS. 2012;109(45):18493–18498. doi:10.1073/pnas.1210603109 ✔ Rowe JA, Handel IG, Thera MA, et al. Blood group O protects against severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria through the mechanism of reduced rosetting. PNAS. 2007;104(44):17471–17476. doi:10.1073/pnas.0705390104 ✔ Glass RI, Holmgren J, Haley CE, et al. Predisposition for cholera of individuals with O blood group: possible evolutionary significance. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1985;121(6):791–796. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114050 ✔ Olalde I, Brace S, Allentoft ME, et al. The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Nature. 2018;555:190–196. doi:10.1038/nature25738 ✔ Lazaridis I, Patterson N, Mittnik A, et al. Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans. Nature. 2014;513:409–413. doi:10.1038/nature13673 ◐ Haak W, Lazaridis I, Patterson N, et al. Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe. Nature. 2015;522:207–211. doi:10.1038/nature14317 ◐ Lewontin RC. The apportionment of human diversity. Evolutionary Biology. 1972;6:381–398. #Ancestry #TypeOBlood #AncientDNADecoded #BlackHistory #DNA #Genetics #TypeOBlood #AfricanAncestry #HumanOrigins #Ancestry #ScienceExplained #BlackExcellence #Genealogy