Ozzy Osbourne has Neanderthals and other weird stuff in his DNA

"The Prince of Darkness, otherwise known as Ozzy Osbourne, has ordered scientists to sequence his genome. Heavy metal howler Ozzy Osbourne decided to have his DNA sequenced and analyzed to solve a mystery. The British heavy metal icon, who became famous as much for his prodigious drug and alcohol abuse also as his music, said having his genome sequenced could offer clues about why he’s still alive. Osborne appeared at TEDMED 2010 in San Diego today to present the findings.

Why had been the genome from Ozzy being sequenced

Ozzy Osbourne’s genome had been sequenced by Mo. bioscience firm Cofactor Genomics and analyzed by Knome, Inc. Osbourne learned he had a disease kind of like Parkinson's which caused him to want to learn about his ancestry, CNN reports Jorge Conde of Knome saying. However, Osbourne had a more characteristic explanation. In an Oct. 24 guest column for the Sun Times, Osbourne said “Given the swimming pools of booze I’ve guzzled over the years — not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol … you name it – there’s really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive. Possibly my DNA could say why.”

Now we know the Neanderthal is in Ozzy

Osbourne did learn something about his ancestry after sequencing his genome. One of Osbourne's distant ancestors had been a Neanderthal as shown on his 10th chromosome with just a "little segment" as reported by Scientific American. Osbourne is the only person that people aren't amazed has a bit of Neanderthal in him. Years ago, this discovery would are preposterous. 1 to 4 percent of those not from Africa have Neanderthals in their DNA as had been found this year. Osbourne said that he had been "tickled" to know this. Having caveman blood was surprising.

And the winner is… Ozzy!

A gene in Osbourne's DNA makes him different from many people with the protein being developed, which is why he might have survived the years of substance abuse. One more thing that would explain why his body is doing this well would be an unusual variant near one of the alcohol deydrogenase genes which metabolizes alcohol fast. A Knome scientist summed things up unscientifically, saying “He’s a 61-year-old healthy guy, and that speaks for itself. That suggests he’s done OK in the genetic lottery.”

Sources

CNN

news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/29/fridays-intriguing-people-31/?npt=NP1

Scientific American

scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ozzy-osbourne-genome&page=2

The Sunday Times

thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/