The legends of giants have been confirmed by genetics
Scientists have revealed the genetic secret of the "land of giants" in Ireland
Residents of Northern Ireland turned out to be carriers of an unusual mutation in the AIP gene, leading to the development of gigantism, which explains why Ulster is often called the "land of giants," according to an article published in the journal Human Mutation (Radian et al., Increased Population Risk of AIP-Related Acromegaly and Gigantism in Ireland).
"And although these people look to ordinary people as particularly strong, large and generally healthy people, excess growth hormones and IGF-1 protein lead to extremely negative consequences for them. What makes us admire them ultimately shortens their lives and leads to death," said Anthony Heaney from the University of California at Los Angeles (in a press release Genetic discovery helps explain Irish giant folklore – VM).
Heaney and his colleagues, led by Marta Korbonits from Queen Mary University in London (UK), found out that about one in 150 residents of Ulster in northern Ireland is a carrier of a mutation associated with the development of gigantism, studying the DNA of hundreds of people suffering from acromegaly.
Acromegaly is an unusual disease that leads to excessive overgrowth of the tissues of the arms, legs, skull and face during adulthood due to disorders in the pituitary gland, causing it to secrete excessive amounts of growth hormone. The development of acromegaly leads to deformities of the limbs and face when they occur in adolescence, and to the development of gigantism – in childhood.
According to Korbonitz, her research in the past has shown that gigantism and acromegaly are associated with a breakdown of the AIP gene, leading to the development of tumors in the pituitary gland and uncontrolled production of growth hormones in this gland.
Studying the genomes of patients with this disease, Korbonitz, an Irishwoman by birth, drew attention to the fact that many of them carried typically "Irish" DNA traits. At that moment, she recalled a large number of legends and fairy tales in Ireland dedicated to giants, as well as many examples of famous giant people who lived on the territory of the "emerald isle" in the 18th and 19th centuries.
All this prompted scientists to check how common one of the mutations in the AIP gene they found is among residents of Ireland in general and some regions of the country in particular. To do this, biologists analyzed the DNA of over two thousand residents of the provincial regions of the island, as well as almost a thousand residents of the vicinity of Belfast, the capital of the British part of Ireland and the surrounding areas of Ulster, a historical region in the north of Ireland.
This study revealed an interesting phenomenon – it turned out that all carriers of this mutation, which are really very common in Ireland, are concentrated exclusively in Ulster, and almost do not occur in other regions of the island. Here, every 150 inhabitants of the region is a carrier of this mutation in the AIP gene.
All of them, which is even more interesting, turned out to be descendants of one person, the "original giant", who lived on the island about 2.5 thousand years ago, even before the time of Roman rule in the British Isles. Curiously, this version of the gene was possessed by one of the famous Irish giants of the late 18th century, Charles Byrne, who was born in Ulster in 1761, while another giant, Cornelius Magrat, who lived in the south of Ireland, did not have it.
The prevalence of mutations in AIP in the north of Ireland and the gigantism associated with them, according to scientists, could serve as the basis for the emergence of legends and fairy tales about giants living on the northern shores of the island. It is possible that many other legends of the peoples of the world originated in a similar way, scientists conclude.
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19.10.2016