Different shapes by height

2004/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia

The inhabitants of Tibet, Ethiopia and the Andes have not followed the same path to face the problem. Now, researchers want to know whether each solution has its own genetic characteristics or not.

The difference is not great, but researchers have found that respiratory strategies are different. For example, people living in the Andes have increased the amount of hemoglobin in blood, that is, they have a higher proportion of oxygen-carrying proteins. Tibetan people have developed a faster breathing mechanism.

Surely these characteristics are reflected in the genes. At the moment, biologists have extracted from DNA analysis other data, such as that not all peoples living four thousand meters away have a unique origin, but are a mixture of descendants of various historical migrations.