Tay Sachs

Tay Sachs is a disease which only affects Jews with two Ashkenazi parents - that is Jews of European heritage. It is currently in the news because the Los Angeles Times has reported that there may be a link between carrying the gene and having higher intelligence.

There has been much written about Jews as a whole testing higher on IQ tests than other ethnic, religious, and socio-economic groups. There are also a range of diseases that are specific to Jews including Tay Sachs.

One researcher has come to believe that the two are related. That is, if a person of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage has one copy of the gene, he or she is likely to have a higher base IQ. However, if he or she has two copies of the gene, they will develop Tay Sachs.

Wikipedia describes Tay Sachs as follows:

Research in the late 20th century demonstrated that Tay-Sachs disease is caused by a genetic mutation on the HEXA gene on chromosome 15. A large number of HEXA mutations have been discovered, and new ones are still being reported. These mutations reach significant frequencies in several populations. French Canadians of southeastern Quebec have a carrier frequency similar to Ashkenazi Jews, but they carry a different mutation. Many Cajuns of southern Louisiana carry the same mutation that is most common in Ashkenazi Jews. Most HEXA mutations are rare, and do not occur in genetically isolated populations. The disease can potentially occur from the inheritance of two unrelated mutations in the HEXA gene, one from each parent.[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_sachs