You Neanderthal -- there's primitive DNA in most of us
Source: Agencies |
May 8, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NEANDERTHALS and modern humans interbred, probably when early modern humans first began to migrate out of Africa, according to a study.
People of European, Asian and Australasian origin all have Neanderthal DNA, but not Africans, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
The study may help resolve the long-running debate over whether Neanderthals and modern humans did more than simply live side by side in Europe.
"Those of us who live outside Africa carry a little Neanderthal DNA in us," said Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, who led the study.
"The main finding is that there was gene flow from Neanderthals into all the ancestors of modern Non-Africans," said Dr David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who worked on the study. "The proportion of Neanderthal-inherited genetic material is about 1 to 4 percent. It is a small but very real proportion of ancestry in non-Africans today."
The researchers used modern methods called whole genome sequencing to examine the DNA from Neanderthal bones found in Croatia, Russia, Germany and Spain. It was not easy.
"In those bones that are 30,000, 40,000 years old there is of course very little DNA preserved," Paabo said.
He said 97 percent or more of the DNA extracted was from bacteria and fungi, and the Neanderthal DNA had to be pieced together. They compared the Neanderthal sequences to DNA sequences from five living Europeans, Asians and Africans.
"You must appreciate that this international team has produced a draft sequence of a genome that existed 400 centuries ago," said Dr Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
"Their analysis shows the power of comparative genomics and brings new insights to our understanding of human evolution."
The results add to a picture of modern humans living alongside with and interacting on the most intimate levels with similar humans now extinct.
"There was interbreeding at some little level. I would prefer to leave it to others who want to quarrel over whether to call us separate species or not," Paabo said. "We have shown that it was biologically possible for them to interbreed ... They were not genetically very distinct from us."
In March Paabo and colleagues reported they had found a previously unknown human species in Siberia.
They analyzed DNA from a finger bone to show the hominid, nicknamed "Woman X", could have lived as recently as 30,000 years ago alongside modern humans and Neanderthals.
Scientists have speculated that several different species of humans lived side by side at various times.
People of European, Asian and Australasian origin all have Neanderthal DNA, but not Africans, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
The study may help resolve the long-running debate over whether Neanderthals and modern humans did more than simply live side by side in Europe.
"Those of us who live outside Africa carry a little Neanderthal DNA in us," said Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, who led the study.
"The main finding is that there was gene flow from Neanderthals into all the ancestors of modern Non-Africans," said Dr David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who worked on the study. "The proportion of Neanderthal-inherited genetic material is about 1 to 4 percent. It is a small but very real proportion of ancestry in non-Africans today."
The researchers used modern methods called whole genome sequencing to examine the DNA from Neanderthal bones found in Croatia, Russia, Germany and Spain. It was not easy.
"In those bones that are 30,000, 40,000 years old there is of course very little DNA preserved," Paabo said.
He said 97 percent or more of the DNA extracted was from bacteria and fungi, and the Neanderthal DNA had to be pieced together. They compared the Neanderthal sequences to DNA sequences from five living Europeans, Asians and Africans.
"You must appreciate that this international team has produced a draft sequence of a genome that existed 400 centuries ago," said Dr Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
"Their analysis shows the power of comparative genomics and brings new insights to our understanding of human evolution."
The results add to a picture of modern humans living alongside with and interacting on the most intimate levels with similar humans now extinct.
"There was interbreeding at some little level. I would prefer to leave it to others who want to quarrel over whether to call us separate species or not," Paabo said. "We have shown that it was biologically possible for them to interbreed ... They were not genetically very distinct from us."
In March Paabo and colleagues reported they had found a previously unknown human species in Siberia.
They analyzed DNA from a finger bone to show the hominid, nicknamed "Woman X", could have lived as recently as 30,000 years ago alongside modern humans and Neanderthals.
Scientists have speculated that several different species of humans lived side by side at various times.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
