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| The ancient DNA was analysed using a new technique |
The DNA of
a cave girl who lived about 80,000 years ago has been analysed in remarkable
detail.
The picture
of her genome is as accurate as that of modern day human genomes, and shows she
had brown eyes, hair and skin.
The
research in Science also sheds new light on the genetic differences between
modern humans and their closest extinct relatives.
The cave
dweller, a Denisovan, was a cousin of the Neanderthals.
Both groups
of ancient humans died out about 30,000 years ago, but have left their mark in
the gene pool of modern people.
Shadowy
past
The
Denisovans have mysterious origins. They appear to have left little behind for
palaeontologists save a tiny finger bone and a wisdom tooth found in Siberia's
Denisova cave in 2010. Though some researchers have proposed a possible link
between the Denisovans and human fossils from China that have previously been
difficult to classify.
A Russian
scientist sent a fragment of the bone from Siberia to a team led by Svante
Paabo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig,
Germany.
He thought
it might belong to an early modern human, but the results came as a surprise.
DNA
analysis revealed a human who was neither a Neanderthal nor a modern human but
the first of a new group of ancient humans.
Gene
catalogue
Dr Paabo's
team has now sequenced the genome of the Denisovan in much greater depth, using
a new technique for studying ancient DNA.
The quality
of the genome sequence is similar to that seen in genome studies of modern day
humans.
 |
| The samples were found in Siberia's Denisova Cave |
"This
is an extinct genome sequence of unprecedented accuracy," said Dr Matthias
Meyer, the chief researcher on the study.
"For
most of the genome we can even determine the differences between the two sets
of chromosomes that the Denisovan girl inherited from her mother and
father."
The
scientists compared the girl's genome with that of Neanderthals and 11 modern
humans from around the world.
This
allowed them to catalogue the gene changes that make modern humans different
from the two groups of extinct humans that were their closest relatives.
They
include changes to only a single DNA letter in several genes involved in the
wiring of the brain and nervous system, as well as those that affect the eye
and the skin.
Dr Paabo
said further investigation of changes in genes involved in connecting up the
brain will be exciting to pursue.
He told BBC
News: "To me the most exciting thing is having a good genome from our very
closest extinct relatives which we can now compare ourselves to.
"It's
a catalogue of what makes everyone on the planet unique compared with our
closest extinct relatives."
The most
detailed genetic analysis yet of the Denisovans also confirms that they bred
with the ancestors of some people alive today, the researchers said.
It shows
that about 3% of the genomes of people living today in Papua New Guinea come
from Denisovans, with a trace of their DNA lingering in the Han and Dai people
from mainland China.
The genetic
variation of Denisovans was very low, suggesting that although they were found
in large parts of Asia their population remained small.
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