This was our project at Summer School of Science in 2017 :-) For more details read our report

IDEA:

Study how genetic background of lactose intolerance, handedness, speech and language comprehension capabilities and cognitive function changed over time and as humans evolved.

RESULTS:

We compared single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genomes of people who lived during 6000 BC to today, Neanderthals, Denisovans, chimpanzees and orangutans. We identified SNP previously linked to handedness (rs11855415) and eight polymorphisms linked to cognitive functions. Individuals can have bases TT, CT or CC for rs11855415. If an individual has the TT genotype, they have a 50% chance of becoming left-handed, if they have CT, they have 25% chance of becoming left-handed, and if they have the CC allele, 100% of them are right-handed.

Neanderthals and the Denisovans have TT on this location in the genome, while orangutans and chimpanzees have CC. In the genomes of the modern humans, we found all three possible variants: CC,CT,TT.

We identified that the number of left-handed individuals has been increasing with time, but the number of risk alleles for cognitive functions has stayed about the same. Finally, we determined that, based on genomic data from human ancestors, it should be possible to infer their characteristics, which don’t manifest on human remains and artefacts.

FULL REPORT HERE:

Report.pdf

Authors of report

Lovro Rabuzin, Réka Gyetvai, Julia Hamblin-Trué, Lukas Lorenz