No, not really. They may have helped as much as they hurt...which might be little solace to a hay fever sufferer.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/your-nea...allergies/
Quote:Your Neanderthal DNA may help you fight disease — and give you allergies
Quote:If you sneeze when flowers bloom in the spring and tear up in the presence of a cat, your Neanderthal DNA may be to blame.
About 2 percent of the DNA in most people alive today came from trysts between ancient humans and their Neanderthal neighbors tens of thousands of years ago, recent studies have shown. Now, scientists are trying to determine what, if any, impact that Neanderthal genetic legacy has on our contemporary lives.
In a pair of papers published this week in the American Journal of Human Genetics, two research teams report that in many people, a group of genes that govern the first line of defense against pathogens was probably inherited from Neanderthals.
