Tibetans developed genes to help them adapt to life at high elevations

Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 13:11 in Biology & Nature

Researchers have long wondered why the people of the Tibetan Highlands can live at elevations that cause some humans to become life-threateningly ill - and a new study answers that mystery, in part, by showing that through thousands of years of natural selection, those hardy inhabitants of south-central Asia evolved 10 unique oxygen-processing genes that help them live in higher climes.

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