They theorize that this has contributed to reduced fertility in males, which is commonly observed in other hybrids between two highly divergent groups of the same species. Reich and lab members, Swapan Mallick and Nick Patterson, teamed up with previous laboratory member Sriram Sankararaman, now an Assistant Professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles, on the project, which found evidence that both Denisovan and Neanderthal ancestry has been lost from the X chromosome, as well as genes expressed in the male testes. We can document this removal over the 40,000 years since these admixtures occurred.' 'On the flip side, there was negative selection to systematically remove ancestry that may have been problematic from modern humans. 'There are certain classes of genes that modern humans inherited from the archaic humans with whom they interbred, which may have helped the modern humans to adapt to the new environments in which they arrived,' says senior author David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute. Meanwhile, Neanderthal genes found in people around the world most likely contribute to tougher skin and hair. While there is still much to uncover, Denisovan genes can potentially be linked to a more subtle sense of smell in Papua New Guineans and high-altitude adaptions in Tibetans. “Our research demonstrates that there were at least two distinct populations of Denisovans living in Asia, probably somewhat geographically distant.The Harvard Medical School/UCLA research team that created the map also used comparative genomics to make predictions about where Denisovan and Neanderthal genes may be impacting modern human biology. “Although the Papuans ended up with more Denisovan ancestry, it turns out to be less similar to the sequenced Denisovan,” Sharon Browning, a research professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health and senior author of the study, told New Scientist. According to the study’s findings, published in the journal Cell this week, this Denisovan DNA is actually more closely related to the sample taken from the girl in the Siberian cave. What they found was a distinct set of Denisovan ancestry among some modern East Asians-particularly Han Chinese, Chinese Dai and Japanese-ancestry not found in South Asians or Papuans. VIDEO: Neanderthals: Did Cro Magnons, the ancestors of early humans, cause the Neanderthal extinction? When they found the ancient genetic information, they compared with Denisovan DNA and Neanderthal DNA to determine its origin. In their analysis of more than 5,600 whole-genome sequences from individuals from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Oceania, the research team looked for ancient DNA, which stands out due to the larger number of mutations that have developed over hundreds of thousands of years.

Cro magnon site map