Los Angeles Times:

The small change, substituting one chemical letter of DNA for another, may have helped humans in Asia survive crippling heat and humidity by endowing them with extra sweat glands, the scientists reported Thursday in the journal Cell. It may also have made people with the mutation more attractive to the opposite sex by allowing them to grow thicker hair or fuller breasts.

The research showed how scientists are getting better at zeroing in on the key DNA changes that shaped who we are today. The analysis also revealed that mutations in genes involved in bone density, skin color and immune system function were likely pivotal in helping humans adapt to new environments as they spread throughout the world.

"You can let the genome tell you what's been important in human evolution," said Harvard computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti, senior author of the two studies published in Cell.

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