Markers / Gene
IL1B
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
Interleukin-1 beta, the fever signal
rs1143634 · chr2:113,590,390 · G/A · evidence: moderate
IL-1 beta is the molecule that raises your body temperature during infection. Fever is a defence, not a symptom, and this variant is associated with producing more of the signal that triggers it.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | You have the lower-output version on both copies |
| One copy | You carry one higher-output copy |
| Two copies | You carry two higher-output copies |
| Ancestry group | A (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 12.3% | |
| American | 12.5% | |
| East Asian | 2.3% | |
| European | 24.8% | |
| South Asian | 14.7% |
1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.
Where this gene fits
If you have taken a home DNA test, these positions are already in your file.
Read my file