While the genetic disease is usually passed down from parents who are the carriers, in the case of Ata, the mutations were extremely rare unlike what has ever been seen before. This made it almost impossible for the mutations to be passed down from carriers.
"Many times, genetic diseases are passed on from parents that are carriers," Butte said. "In this case, these mutations are so rare that we haven't actually ever seen some of these before, so it's hard to imagine there are carriers out there.”
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The researchers felt that the environment could have influenced the mutations. It was the high exposure of nitrates present in the mines area that may have affected the specimen. Butte also expressed hope that the advanced technology used to study Ata could now be of use to study deformities and genetic mutations in living patients. This could also help experts formulate new treatments for genetic mutations.
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Professor Butte felt that many children’s hospitals are reporting rare and unusual symptoms in children never seen before. While DNA sequencing can locate on mutation, there could be more than one difference in DNA that is hard to explain and research shouldn’t stop when one has been found because there may be more like in Ata’s case.
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Ata is not the first case of mystery surrounding the discovery of a little mummy. On August 13th, 1996, a woman named Tamara Prosvirina claimed to have found a small creature in a forest where she took it home and cared for it. What transpired after that was a huge phenomenon in Russia that would be known as the mystery of the Kyshtym Alien, named after the town Kyshtym where it was found.
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