• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

We All Carry Neanderthal And Denisovan DNA – Here’s How That Affects Us

November 25, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Homo sapiens may be the last humans standing, but we weren’t always alone. For much of our history, we coexisted with other members of our genus, and our prehistoric ancestors didn’t waste the opportunity to hook up with their Neanderthal and Denisovan relatives.

Many millennia have passed since these inter-hominid affairs, yet we all still bear the consequences of our predecessors’ promiscuity. Thanks to recent developments in ancient DNA detection and genome sequencing, scientists are now beginning to understand how this primordial genetic mingling continues to shape our health, appearance, and physiology.

Advertisement

Reviewing all the existing data on archaic human introgression into the modern human genome, the authors of a new study explain that because Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa in waves, different populations of humans ended up mating with Neanderthals in different regions of Eurasia. As a result, those of us alive today display a complex patchwork of introgressed sequences inherited from this now extinct lineage.

Recent work has also revealed that Homo sapiens interbred with three separate Denisovan populations. As a consequence, all non-African individuals now derive around 2 percent of their genome from Neanderthals, while certain Indigenous groups in Oceania have an extra 2-5 percent Denisovan DNA.

Looking at how these archaic genes actually affect us, the study authors explain that our Neanderthal DNA may have increased the size of our noses while our Denisovan heritage is associated with the width of our lips. This conclusion builds on previous studies which indicated that the Denisovans probably had narrower mouths than the average modern human.

Advertisement

There’s also some evidence to suggest that Neanderthal genes may have altered our circadian rhythm, making us more likely to wake up early in the morning. However, the majority of the surviving genetic sequences picked up from our extinct relatives are related to immune system functioning.

According to the researchers, this is not all that surprising, since both Neanderthals and Denisovans would have been better adapted to cope with the types of pathogens present in Eurasia than the incoming Homo sapiens arriving from Africa. Mating with the locals would therefore have enabled our ancient ancestors to pick up certain advantageous genes that would have provided protection from infectious microbes and therefore been passed down through natural selection.

“However, immune-related variants inherited from archaic hominins that were beneficial to modern humans in these new environments may also contribute to disease susceptibility in contemporary individuals,” write the study authors. For instance, while one cluster of Neanderthal genes on chromosome 12 appears to confer protection against severe COVID symptoms, another on chromosome three may actually increase our susceptibility to the illness.

Meanwhile, an analysis of modern Japanese genomes has revealed an association between Denisovan DNA and health conditions such as type II diabetes and coronary artery disease.

Advertisement

Such discoveries have helped to unravel the genetic history of our species, yet many gaps remain. For instance, it’s still unclear how gene flow between different human species impacts the DNA of modern African populations, with some scholars believing that the genetic signature of an unknown “ghost” hominid may be present in these groups.

Nonetheless, the study authors state that “recent work has continued to provide new insights into the history of gene flow between modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans and has clearly demonstrated that admixture had important functional, phenotypic, and evolutionary consequences in modern humans.”

The study is published in the journal Current Opinion in Genetics & Development.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Lacking Company, A Dolphin In The Baltic Is Talking To Himself

Source Link: We All Carry Neanderthal And Denisovan DNA – Here’s How That Affects Us

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • Meet The Heaviest Jelly In The Seas, Weighing Over Twice As Much As A Grand Piano
  • For The First Time, We’ve Found Evidence Climate Change Is Attracting Invasive Species To Canadian Arctic
  • What Are Microfiber Cloths, And How Do They Clean So Well?
  • Stowaway Rat That Hopped On A Flight From Miami Was A “Wake-Up Call” For Global Health
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version