The story of a Indonesia fish tribe, can to hold their breath up 13 minutes when diving

News24xx.com -  In Indonesia, have a tribe named Bajau. They settled around the islands of Indonesia especially off the coast of Borneo. For more than 1,000 years, the Bajau have wandered the seas of southern Asia in house boats, catching fish by free diving with spears. They are famous for their extraordinary breath-holding ability.  

These dwelling nomads are from the many islands of the Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines but many have migrated to the neighbouring area of Sabah, Borneo, due to the conflict in Muslim Mindanao. They have no citizenship and therefore no rights to public amenities or schools.

The genetic change discovered in the Bajau tribe, they can hold their breath for 13 minutes. From a study its known that they are the first example of a human adaptation to deep diving.
 

They can dive up to 230 feet (70 metres) aided by nothing more than a set of weights and a pair of wooden goggles. 

They said that the spleen plays a key role in the when they are dive response. When the dive in, heart rate slows, blood is directed to the vital organs, and the spleen contracts to inject oxygenated red blood cells into the circulation.

The new study found that the spleens of the Bajau people are 50 per cent larger than those of their land-dwelling neighbours, the Saluan. 

Lead scientist Melissa Ilardo, from Cambridge University, said that DNA analysis showed that the Bajau have a gene called PDE10A that is lacking in the Saluan.  The gene is thought to alter spleen size by adjusting thyroid hormone levels.

Ms Ilardo, who embarked on the research as a PhD candidate spent several months in Jaya Bakti, Indonesia, taking genetic samples and conducting ultrasound scans of people from the Bajau and Saluan tribes.

The evidence showed that Bajau spleens were permanently enlarged, and did not get bigger simply as a response to diving.

 

 

 

 

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