People with this muscle protein gene variant tolerate the cold better
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17 February 2021People with this muscle protein gene variant tolerate the cold better
A gene variant that affects skeletal muscle function may have protected humans against lower temperatures as they migrated from Africa to Europe more than 50,000 years ago, suggests a study appearing February 17 in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The loss-of-function (LOF) variant of the ACTN3 gene is known to result in the loss of a skeletal muscle protein called α-actinin-3 and to have become more prevalent as modern humans moved to colder environments. Researchers now show that α-actinin-3 deficiency improves cold tolerance in humans by increasing muscle tone.
