Evaluating Neanderthal genetics and phylogeny
- PMID: 17146600
- DOI: 10.1007/s00239-006-0017-y
Evaluating Neanderthal genetics and phylogeny
Abstract
The retrieval of Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalsensis) mitochondrial DNA is thought to be among the most significant ancient DNA contributions to date, allowing conflicting hypotheses on modern human (Homo sapiens) evolution to be tested directly. Recently, however, both the authenticity of the Neanderthal sequences and their phylogenetic position outside contemporary human diversity have been questioned. Using Bayesian inference and the largest dataset to date, we find strong support for a monophyletic Neanderthal clade outside the diversity of contemporary humans, in agreement with the expectations of the Out-of-Africa replacement model of modern human origin. From average pairwise sequence differences, we obtain support for claims that the first published Neanderthal sequence may include errors due to postmortem damage in the template molecules for PCR. In contrast, we find that recent results implying that the Neanderthal sequences are products of PCR artifacts are not well supported, suffering from inadequate experimental design and a presumably high percentage (>68%) of chimeric sequences due to "jumping PCR" events.
Similar articles
-
Molecular analysis of Neanderthal DNA from the northern Caucasus.Nature. 2000 Mar 30;404(6777):490-3. doi: 10.1038/35006625. Nature. 2000. PMID: 10761915
-
Sequencing and analysis of Neanderthal genomic DNA.Science. 2006 Nov 17;314(5802):1113-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1131412. Science. 2006. PMID: 17110569 Free PMC article.
-
A deterministic model of admixture and genetic introgression: the case of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon.Math Biosci. 2008 Nov;216(1):71-6. doi: 10.1016/j.mbs.2008.08.004. Math Biosci. 2008. PMID: 18768141
-
No evidence of a Neanderthal contribution to modern human diversity.Genome Biol. 2008;9(2):206. doi: 10.1186/gb-2008-9-2-206. Epub 2008 Feb 18. Genome Biol. 2008. PMID: 18304371 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Nutrition and its role in human evolution.J Intern Med. 2019 May;285(5):533-549. doi: 10.1111/joim.12878. Epub 2019 Feb 17. J Intern Med. 2019. PMID: 30772945 Review.
Cited by
-
Phylogeographic distribution of mitochondrial DNA macrohaplogroup M in India.J Genet. 2009 Apr;88(1):127-39. doi: 10.1007/s12041-009-0020-3. J Genet. 2009. PMID: 19417557
-
Mitochondrial DNA evidence for a diversified origin of workers building First Emperor of China.PLoS One. 2008 Oct 1;3(10):e3275. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003275. PLoS One. 2008. PMID: 18833341 Free PMC article.
-
Ancient DNA.Proc Biol Sci. 2005 Jan 7;272(1558):3-16. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2813. Proc Biol Sci. 2005. PMID: 15875564 Free PMC article. Review.
References
Publication types
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources