Migrants from coalfields take DNA as well as talent with them

IT IS ADNAUK common assumption that migrants have more pizzazz than stay-at-homes. That this is reflected in people’s genes, though, may come as a shock. Yet this is the conclusion of a study based on almost half a million Britons who have volunteered to have their , and much else about them too, recorded in the Biobank, a resource available to researchers who are trying to understand the links between genetics, environment, disease and social outcomes.The study in question, just published in , was carried out by a team led by Abdel Abdellaoui of the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and Peter Visscher of the University of Queensland, in Australia. Building on previous work done in the Netherlands, they were looking at how genetic patterns associated with certain biological, medical and behavioural traits cluster geographically and change as people move around.