1
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Bergström A. Improving data archiving practices in ancient genomics. Sci Data 2024; 11:754. [PMID: 38987254 PMCID: PMC11236975 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03563-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 06/21/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Ancient DNA is producing a rich record of past genetic diversity in humans and other species. However, unless the primary data is appropriately archived, its long-term value will not be fully realised. I surveyed publicly archived data from 42 recent ancient genomics studies. Half of the studies archived incomplete datasets, preventing accurate replication and representing a loss of data of potential future use. No studies met all criteria that could be considered best practice. Based on these results, I make six recommendations for data producers: (1) archive all sequencing reads, not just those that aligned to a reference genome, (2) archive read alignments too, but as secondary analysis files, (3) provide correct experiment metadata on samples, libraries and sequencing runs, (4) provide informative sample metadata, (5) archive data from low-coverage and negative experiments, and (6) document archiving choices in papers, and peer review these. Given the reliance on destructive sampling of finite material, ancient genomics studies have a particularly strong responsibility to ensure the longevity and reusability of generated data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anders Bergström
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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2
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Aneli S, Ceccatelli Berti C, Gilea AI, Birolo G, Mutti G, Pavesi A, Baruffini E, Goffrini P, Capelli C. Functional characterization of archaic-specific variants in mitonuclear genes: insights from comparative analysis in S. cerevisiae. Hum Mol Genet 2024; 33:1152-1163. [PMID: 38558123 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddae057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Neanderthal and Denisovan hybridisation with modern humans has generated a non-random genomic distribution of introgressed regions, the result of drift and selection dynamics. Cross-species genomic incompatibility and more efficient removal of slightly deleterious archaic variants have been proposed as selection-based processes involved in the post-hybridisation purge of archaic introgressed regions. Both scenarios require the presence of functionally different alleles across Homo species onto which selection operated differently according to which populations hosted them, but only a few of these variants have been pinpointed so far. In order to identify functionally divergent archaic variants removed in humans, we focused on mitonuclear genes, which are underrepresented in the genomic landscape of archaic humans. We searched for non-synonymous, fixed, archaic-derived variants present in mitonuclear genes, rare or absent in human populations. We then compared the functional impact of archaic and human variants in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Notably, a variant within the mitochondrial tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase 2 (YARS2) gene exhibited a significant decrease in respiratory activity and a substantial reduction of Cox2 levels, a proxy for mitochondrial protein biosynthesis, coupled with the accumulation of the YARS2 protein precursor and a lower amount of mature enzyme. Our work suggests that this variant is associated with mitochondrial functionality impairment, thus contributing to the purging of archaic introgression in YARS2. While different molecular mechanisms may have impacted other mitonuclear genes, our approach can be extended to the functional screening of mitonuclear genetic variants present across species and populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Serena Aneli
- Department of Public Health Sciences and Pediatrics, University of Turin, C.so Galileo Galilei 22, Turin 10126, Italy
| | - Camilla Ceccatelli Berti
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, Parma 43124, Italy
| | - Alexandru Ionut Gilea
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, Parma 43124, Italy
| | - Giovanni Birolo
- Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Via Santena 5, Turin 10126, Italy
| | - Giacomo Mutti
- Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS), Department of Life Sciences, Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, Barcelona 08034, Spain
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Department of Mechanisms of Disease, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, Barcelona 08028, Spain
| | - Angelo Pavesi
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, Parma 43124, Italy
| | - Enrico Baruffini
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, Parma 43124, Italy
| | - Paola Goffrini
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, Parma 43124, Italy
| | - Cristian Capelli
- Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/a, Parma 43124, Italy
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Rd, Oxford OX1 3SZ, United Kingdom
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3
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Yaworsky PM, Nielsen ES, Nielsen TK. The Neanderthal niche space of Western Eurasia 145 ka to 30 ka ago. Sci Rep 2024; 14:7788. [PMID: 38565571 PMCID: PMC10987600 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-57490-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Neanderthals occupied Western Eurasia between 350 ka and 40 ka ago, during the climatically volatile Pleistocene. A key issue is to what extent Neanderthal populations expanded into areas of Western Eurasia and what conditions facilitated such range expansions. The range extent of Neanderthals is generally based on the distribution of Neanderthal material, but the land-altering nature of glacial periods has erased much of the already sparse material evidence of Neanderthals, particularly in the northern latitudes. To overcome this obstacle species distribution models can estimate past distributions of Neanderthals, however, most implementations are generally constrained spatially and temporally and may be artificially truncating the Neanderthal niche space. Using dated contexts from Neanderthal sites from across Western Eurasia, millennial-scale paleoclimate reconstructions, and a spatiotemporal species distribution model, we infer the fundamental climatic niche space of Neanderthals and estimate the extent of Neanderthal occupation. We find that (a.) despite the long timeframe, Neanderthals occupy a relatively narrow fundamental climatic niche space, (b.) the estimated projected potential Neanderthal niche space suggests a larger geographic range than the material record suggests, and (c.) that there was a general decline in the size of the projected potential Neanderthal niche from 145 ka ago onward, possibly contributing to their extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M Yaworsky
- Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, Building 4216, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark.
- Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114-116, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark.
| | - Emil S Nielsen
- Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, Building 4216, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark
- Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114-116, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Trine K Nielsen
- Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, Building 4216, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark
- Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114-116, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark
- Moesgaard Museum, Moesgård Allé 15, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark
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4
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Rmoutilová R, Brůžek J, Gómez-Olivencia A, Madelaine S, Couture-Veschambre C, Holliday T, Maureille B. Sex estimation of the adult Neandertal Regourdou 1 (Montignac, France): Implications for sexing human fossil remains. J Hum Evol 2024; 189:103470. [PMID: 38552260 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2022] [Revised: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2024]
Abstract
Sex is a biological trait fundamental to the study of hominin fossils. Among the many questions that can be addressed are those related to taxonomy, biological variability, sexual dimorphism, paleoobstetrics, funerary selection, and paleodemography. While new methodologies such as paleogenomics or paleoproteomics can be used to determine sex, they have not been systematically applied to Pleistocene human remains due to their destructive nature. Therefore, we estimated sex from the coxal bone of the newly discovered pelvic remains of the Regourdou 1 Neandertal (Southwest France, MIS 5) based on morphological and metric data employing two methods that have been recently revised and shown to be reliable in multiple studies. Both methods calculate posterior probabilities of the estimate. The right coxal bone of Regourdou 1 was partially reconstructed providing additional traits for sex estimation. These methods were cross validated on 14 sufficiently preserved coxal bones of specimens from the Neandertal lineage. Our results show that the Regourdou 1 individual, whose postcranial skeleton is not robust, is a male, and that previous sex attributions of comparative Neandertal specimens are largely in agreement with those obtained here. Our results encourage additional morphological research of fossil hominins in order to develop a set of methods that are applicable, reliable, and reproducible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebeka Rmoutilová
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 00, Prague, Czech Republic; University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MC, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33600, Pessac, France; Hrdlicka Museum of Man, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic.
| | - Jaroslav Brůžek
- Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 00, Prague, Czech Republic; University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MC, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33600, Pessac, France
| | - Asier Gómez-Olivencia
- Departamento de Geología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain; Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain; Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigacion Sobre Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Stéphane Madelaine
- University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MC, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33600, Pessac, France; Musée National de Préhistoire, 1 Rue Du Musée, 24620, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac Sireuil, France
| | | | - Trenton Holliday
- Tulane University, Department of Anthropology, 101 Dinwiddie Hall, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA; Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, RSA, South Africa
| | - Bruno Maureille
- University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MC, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33600, Pessac, France
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Peyrégne S, Slon V, Kelso J. More than a decade of genetic research on the Denisovans. Nat Rev Genet 2024; 25:83-103. [PMID: 37723347 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-023-00643-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
Denisovans, a group of now extinct humans who lived in Eastern Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene, were first identified from DNA sequences just over a decade ago. Only ten fragmentary remains from two sites have been attributed to Denisovans based entirely on molecular information. Nevertheless, there has been great interest in using genetic data to understand Denisovans and their place in human history. From the reconstruction of a single high-quality genome, it has been possible to infer their population history, including events of admixture with other human groups. Additionally, the identification of Denisovan DNA in the genomes of present-day individuals has provided insights into the timing and routes of dispersal of ancient modern humans into Asia and Oceania, as well as the contributions of archaic DNA to the physiology of present-day people. In this Review, we synthesize more than a decade of research on Denisovans, reconcile controversies and summarize insights into their population history and phenotype. We also highlight how our growing knowledge about Denisovans has provided insights into our own evolutionary history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Viviane Slon
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- The Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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6
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Dalén L, Heintzman PD, Kapp JD, Shapiro B. Deep-time paleogenomics and the limits of DNA survival. Science 2023; 382:48-53. [PMID: 37797036 PMCID: PMC10586222 DOI: 10.1126/science.adh7943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/07/2023]
Abstract
Although most ancient DNA studies have focused on the last 50,000 years, paleogenomic approaches can now reach into the early Pleistocene, an epoch of repeated environmental changes that shaped present-day biodiversity. Emerging deep-time genomic transects, including from DNA preserved in sediments, will enable inference of adaptive evolution, discovery of unrecognized species, and exploration of how glaciations, volcanism, and paleomagnetic reversals shaped demography and community composition. In this Review, we explore the state-of-the-art in paleogenomics and discuss key challenges, including technical limitations, evolutionary divergence and associated biases, and the need for more precise dating of remains and sediments. We conclude that with improvements in laboratory and computational methods, the emerging field of deep-time paleogenomics will expand the range of questions addressable using ancient DNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Love Dalén
- Centre for Palaeogenetics, Svante Arrhenius väg 20C, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, SE- 10405 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Peter D. Heintzman
- Centre for Palaeogenetics, Svante Arrhenius väg 20C, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Joshua D. Kapp
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA
| | - Beth Shapiro
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA
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7
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Gicqueau A, Schuh A, Henrion J, Viola B, Partiot C, Guillon M, Golovanova L, Doronichev V, Gunz P, Hublin JJ, Maureille B. Anatomically modern human in the Châtelperronian hominin collection from the Grotte du Renne (Arcy-sur-Cure, Northeast France). Sci Rep 2023; 13:12682. [PMID: 37542146 PMCID: PMC10403518 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39767-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Around 42,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans appeared in Western Europe to the detriment of indigenous Neanderthal groups. It is during this period that new techno-cultural complexes appear, such as the Châtelperronian that extends from northern Spain to the Paris Basin. The Grotte du Renne (Arcy-sur-Cure) is a key site for discussing the biological identity of its makers. This deposit has yielded several Neanderthal human remains in its Châtelperronian levels. However, the last inventory of the paleoanthropological collection attributed to this techno-complex allowed the identification of an ilium belonging to a neonate (AR-63) whose morphology required a thorough analysis to assess its taxonomic attribution. Using geometric morphometrics, we quantified its morphology and compared it to that of 2 Neanderthals and 32 recent individuals deceased during the perinatal period to explore their morphological variation. Our results indicate a morphological distinction between the ilia of Neanderthals and anatomically modern neonates. Although AR-63 is slightly outside recent variability, it clearly differs from the Neanderthals. We propose that this is due to its belonging to an early modern human lineage whose morphology differs slightly from present-day humans. We also explore different hypotheses about the presence of this anatomically modern neonate ilium among Neanderthal remains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Gicqueau
- Univ. de Toulouse Jean Jaurès, CNRS, Ministère de La Culture, TRACES, UMR5608 CNRS, F-31058, Toulouse, France.
- Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR5199, F-33600, Pessac, France.
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionnary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Alexandra Schuh
- Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR5199, F-33600, Pessac, France
- Department of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Juliette Henrion
- Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR5199, F-33600, Pessac, France
| | - Bence Viola
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Caroline Partiot
- Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), Franz Klein-Gasse 1, 1190, Wien/Vienna, Austria
- Museum national d'histoire naturelle, Eco-Anthropologie, UMR7206, F-Paris, France
| | - Mark Guillon
- Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR5199, F-33600, Pessac, France
- Inrap, Boulevard de Verdun, F-76120, Le Grand Quevilly, France
| | | | | | - Philipp Gunz
- Department of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jean-Jacques Hublin
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionnary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Chaire Internationale de Paléoanthropologie, Collège de France, F-75231, Paris, France
| | - Bruno Maureille
- Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR5199, F-33600, Pessac, France.
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8
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Carlberg C. Nutrigenomics in the context of evolution. Redox Biol 2023; 62:102656. [PMID: 36933390 PMCID: PMC10036735 DOI: 10.1016/j.redox.2023.102656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2023] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Nutrigenomics describes the interaction between nutrients and our genome. Since the origin of our species most of these nutrient-gene communication pathways have not changed. However, our genome experienced over the past 50,000 years a number of evolutionary pressures, which are based on the migration to new environments concerning geography and climate, the transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers including the zoonotic transfer of many pathogenic microbes and the rather recent change of societies to a preferentially sedentary lifestyle and the dominance of Western diet. Human populations responded to these challenges not only by specific anthropometric adaptations, such as skin color and body stature, but also through diversity in dietary intake and different resistance to complex diseases like the metabolic syndrome, cancer and immune disorders. The genetic basis of this adaptation process has been investigated by whole genome genotyping and sequencing including that of DNA extracted from ancient bones. In addition to genomic changes, also the programming of epigenomes in pre- and postnatal phases of life has an important contribution to the response to environmental changes. Thus, insight into the variation of our (epi)genome in the context of our individual's risk for developing complex diseases, helps to understand the evolutionary basis how and why we become ill. This review will discuss the relation of diet, modern environment and our (epi)genome including aspects of redox biology. This has numerous implications for the interpretation of the risks for disease and their prevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carsten Carlberg
- Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Juliana Tuwima 10, PL-10748, Olsztyn, Poland; School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland.
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9
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Ghasidian E, Kafash A, Kehl M, Yousefi M, Heydari-Guran S. Modelling Neanderthals' dispersal routes from Caucasus towards east. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0281978. [PMID: 36821540 PMCID: PMC9949648 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 02/05/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The study of the cultural materials associated with the Neanderthal physical remains from the sites in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberian Altai and adjacent areas documents two distinct techno-complexes of Micoquian and Mousterian. These findings potentially outline two dispersal routes for the Neanderthals out of Europe. Using data on topography and Palaeoclimate, we generated computer-based least-cost-path modelling for the Neanderthal dispersal routes from Caucasus towards the east. In this regard, two dispersal routes have been identified: A northern route from Greater Caucasus associated with Micoquian techno-complex towards Siberian Altai and a southern route from Lesser Caucasus associated with Mousterian towards Siberian Altai via the Southern Caspian Corridor. Based on archaeological, bio- and physio-geographical data, our model hypothesises that during climatic deterioration phases (e.g. MIS 4) the connection between Greater and Lesser Caucasus was limited. This issue perhaps resulted in the separate development and spread of two cultural groups of Micoquian and Mousterian with an input from two different population sources of Neanderthal influxes: eastern and southern Europe refugia for these two northern and southern dispersal routes respectively. Of these two, we focus on the southern dispersal route, for it comprises a 'rapid dispersal route' towards east. The significant location of the Southern Caspian corridor between high mountains of Alborz and the Caspian Sea, provided a special biogeographical zone and a refugium. This exceptional physio-geographic condition brings forward the Southern Caspian corridor as a potential place of admixture of different hominin species including Neanderthals and homo sapiens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elham Ghasidian
- Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Germany
- DiyarMehr Institute for Palaeolithic Research, Kermanshah, Iran
- Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Koln, Germany
- Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Anooshe Kafash
- Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Martin Kehl
- Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Koln, Germany
- Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Masoud Yousefi
- Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Saman Heydari-Guran
- Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Germany
- DiyarMehr Institute for Palaeolithic Research, Kermanshah, Iran
- Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Koln, Germany
- Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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10
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Skov L, Peyrégne S, Popli D, Iasi LNM, Devièse T, Slon V, Zavala EI, Hajdinjak M, Sümer AP, Grote S, Bossoms Mesa A, López Herráez D, Nickel B, Nagel S, Richter J, Essel E, Gansauge M, Schmidt A, Korlević P, Comeskey D, Derevianko AP, Kharevich A, Markin SV, Talamo S, Douka K, Krajcarz MT, Roberts RG, Higham T, Viola B, Krivoshapkin AI, Kolobova KA, Kelso J, Meyer M, Pääbo S, Peter BM. Genetic insights into the social organization of Neanderthals. Nature 2022; 610:519-525. [PMID: 36261548 PMCID: PMC9581778 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05283-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans1-8, but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave11-making this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya individuals were closely related, including a father-daughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the individuals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these individuals' genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome diversity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial diversity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurits Skov
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Divyaratan Popli
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Leonardo N M Iasi
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thibaut Devièse
- European Centre for Research and Education in Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE), Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Collège de France, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Viviane Slon
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology Sackler, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- The Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Elena I Zavala
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Mateja Hajdinjak
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Arev P Sümer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Steffi Grote
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Alba Bossoms Mesa
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - David López Herráez
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Birgit Nickel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sarah Nagel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Julia Richter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Elena Essel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Marie Gansauge
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anna Schmidt
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Petra Korlević
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK
| | - Daniel Comeskey
- Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Anatoly P Derevianko
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Aliona Kharevich
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Sergey V Markin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Sahra Talamo
- Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Katerina Douka
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences Forschungsverbund, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Maciej T Krajcarz
- Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Richard G Roberts
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Thomas Higham
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences Forschungsverbund, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Bence Viola
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Andrey I Krivoshapkin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Kseniya A Kolobova
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin M Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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11
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Reilly PF, Tjahjadi A, Miller SL, Akey JM, Tucci S. The contribution of Neanderthal introgression to modern human traits. Curr Biol 2022; 32:R970-R983. [PMID: 36167050 PMCID: PMC9741939 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Neanderthals, our closest extinct relatives, lived in western Eurasia from 400,000 years ago until they went extinct around 40,000 years ago. DNA retrieved from ancient specimens revealed that Neanderthals mated with modern human contemporaries. As a consequence, introgressed Neanderthal DNA survives scattered across the human genome such that 1-4% of the genome of present-day people outside Africa are inherited from Neanderthal ancestors. Patterns of Neanderthal introgressed genomic sequences suggest that Neanderthal alleles had distinct fates in the modern human genetic background. Some Neanderthal alleles facilitated human adaptation to new environments such as novel climate conditions, UV exposure levels and pathogens, while others had deleterious consequences. Here, we review the body of work on Neanderthal introgression over the past decade. We describe how evolutionary forces shaped the genomic landscape of Neanderthal introgression and highlight the impact of introgressed alleles on human biology and phenotypic variation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Audrey Tjahjadi
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - Joshua M Akey
- Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
| | - Serena Tucci
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
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12
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Theofanopoulou C, Andirkó A, Boeckx C, Jarvis ED. Oxytocin and vasotocin receptor variation and the evolution of human prosociality. COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY 2022; 11:100139. [PMID: 35757177 PMCID: PMC9227999 DOI: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2022.100139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2022] [Revised: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Modern human lifestyle strongly depends on complex social traits like empathy, tolerance and cooperation. These diverse facets of social cognition have been associated with variation in the oxytocin receptor (OTR) and its sister genes, the vasotocin/vasopressin receptors (VTR1A/AVPR1A and AVPR1B/VTR1B). Here, we compared the available genomic sequences of these receptors between modern humans, archaic humans, and 12 non-human primate species, and identified sites that show heterozygous variation in modern humans and archaic humans distinct from variation in other primates, and for which we could find association studies with clinical implications. On these sites, we performed a range of analyses (variant clustering, pathogenicity prediction, regulation, linkage disequilibrium frequency), and reviewed the literature on selection data in different modern-human populations. We found five sites with modern human specific variation, where the modern human allele is the major allele in the global population (OTR: rs1042778, rs237885, rs6770632; VTR1A: rs10877969; VTR1B: rs33985287). Among them, variation in the OTR-rs6770632 site was predicted to be the most functional. Two alleles (OTR: rs59190448 and rs237888) present only in modern humans and archaic humans were putatively under positive selection in modern humans, with rs237888 predicted to be a highly functional site. Three sites showed convergent evolution between modern humans and bonobos (OTR: rs2228485 and rs237897; VTR1A: rs1042615), with OTR-rs2228485 ranking highly in terms of functionality and reported to be under balancing selection in modern humans (Schaschl, 2015) [1]. Our findings have implications for understanding hominid prosociality, as well as the similarities between modern human and bonobo social behavior. We compared the oxytocin/vasotocin receptors in modern humans, archaic humans, and non-human primates. We found 5 sites with modern human specific variation. In these sites, the modern human allele is the major allele in the global population. Several sites were predicted to be functional and with selection signatures in modern humans. We also identified 3 sites of convergent evolution in modern humans and bonobos.
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13
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Andreeva TV, Manakhov AD, Gusev FE, Patrikeev AD, Golovanova LV, Doronichev VB, Shirobokov IG, Rogaev EI. Genomic analysis of a novel Neanderthal from Mezmaiskaya Cave provides insights into the genetic relationships of Middle Palaeolithic populations. Sci Rep 2022; 12:13016. [PMID: 35906446 PMCID: PMC9338269 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-16164-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Accepted: 07/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The Mezmaiskaya cave is located on the North Caucasus near the border that divides Europe and Asia. Previously, fossil remains for two Neanderthals were reported from Mezmaiskaya Cave. A tooth from the third archaic hominin specimen (Mezmaiskaya 3) was retrieved from layer 3 in Mezmaiskaya Cave. We performed genome sequencing of Mezmaiskaya 3. Analysis of partial nuclear genome sequence revealed that it belongs to a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis female. Based on a high-coverage mitochondrial genome sequence, we demonstrated that the relationships of Mezmaiskaya 3 to Mezmaiskaya 1 and Stajnia S5000 individuals were closer than those to other Neanderthals. Our data demonstrate the close genetic connections between the early Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals that were replaced by genetically distant later group in the same geographic areas. Based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data, we suggest that Mezmaiskaya 3 was the latest Neanderthal individual from the early Neanderthal’s branches. We proposed a hierarchical nomenclature for the mtDNA haplogroups of Neanderthals. In addition, we retrieved ancestral mtDNA mutations in presumably functional sites fixed in the Neanderthal clades, and also provided the first data showing mtDNA heteroplasmy in Neanderthal specimen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana V Andreeva
- Center for Genetics and Life Science, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi, Russia, 354340. .,Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Genomics and Human Genetics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 119333. .,Faculty of Biology, Centre for Genetics and Genetic Technologies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119192.
| | - Andrey D Manakhov
- Center for Genetics and Life Science, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi, Russia, 354340.,Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Genomics and Human Genetics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 119333.,Faculty of Biology, Centre for Genetics and Genetic Technologies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119192
| | - Fedor E Gusev
- Center for Genetics and Life Science, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi, Russia, 354340.,Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Genomics and Human Genetics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 119333.,Faculty of Biology, Centre for Genetics and Genetic Technologies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119192
| | - Anton D Patrikeev
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Genomics and Human Genetics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 119333
| | | | | | - Ivan G Shirobokov
- Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia, 199034
| | - Evgeny I Rogaev
- Center for Genetics and Life Science, Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sochi, Russia, 354340. .,Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Genomics and Human Genetics, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 119333. .,Faculty of Biology, Centre for Genetics and Genetic Technologies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119192. .,Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01604, USA.
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14
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Vitamin D in the Context of Evolution. Nutrients 2022; 14:nu14153018. [PMID: 35893872 PMCID: PMC9332464 DOI: 10.3390/nu14153018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2022] [Revised: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
For at least 1.2 billion years, eukaryotes have been able to synthesize sterols and, therefore, can produce vitamin D when exposed to UV-B. Vitamin D endocrinology was established some 550 million years ago in animals, when the high-affinity nuclear receptor VDR (vitamin D receptor), transport proteins and enzymes for vitamin D metabolism evolved. This enabled vitamin D to regulate, via its target genes, physiological process, the first of which were detoxification and energy metabolism. In this way, vitamin D was enabled to modulate the energy-consuming processes of the innate immune system in its fight against microbes. In the evolving adaptive immune system, vitamin D started to act as a negative regulator of growth, which prevents overboarding reactions of T cells in the context of autoimmune diseases. When, some 400 million years ago, species left the ocean and were exposed to gravitation, vitamin D endocrinology took over the additional role as a major regulator of calcium homeostasis, being important for a stable skeleton. Homo sapiens evolved approximately 300,000 years ago in East Africa and had adapted vitamin D endocrinology to the intensive exposure of the equatorial sun. However, when some 75,000 years ago, when anatomically modern humans started to populate all continents, they also reached regions with seasonally low or no UV-B, i.e., and under these conditions vitamin D became a vitamin.
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15
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Peyrégne S, Kelso J, Peter BM, Pääbo S. The evolutionary history of human spindle genes includes back-and-forth gene flow with Neandertals. eLife 2022; 11:75464. [PMID: 35816093 PMCID: PMC9273211 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Proteins associated with the spindle apparatus, a cytoskeletal structure that ensures the proper segregation of chromosomes during cell division, experienced an unusual number of amino acid substitutions in modern humans after the split from the ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans. Here, we analyze the history of these substitutions and show that some of the genes in which they occur may have been targets of positive selection. We also find that the two changes in the kinetochore scaffold 1 (KNL1) protein, previously believed to be specific to modern humans, were present in some Neandertals. We show that the KNL1 gene of these Neandertals shared a common ancestor with present-day Africans about 200,000 years ago due to gene flow from the ancestors (or relatives) of modern humans into Neandertals. Subsequently, some non-Africans inherited this modern human-like gene variant from Neandertals, but none inherited the ancestral gene variants. These results add to the growing evidence of early contacts between modern humans and archaic groups in Eurasia and illustrate the intricate relationships among these groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin M Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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16
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Zubova AV, Moiseyev VG, Kulkov AM, Otcherednoy AK, Markin SV, Kolobova KA. Maxillary second molar from the Rozhok I Micoquian site (Azov Sea region): Another link between Eastern Europe and Siberia. J Hum Evol 2022; 168:103209. [PMID: 35617848 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alisa V Zubova
- Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya emb. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lavrentieva av., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
| | - Vyacheslav G Moiseyev
- Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya emb. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia
| | - Alexander M Kulkov
- Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya emb. 7-9, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia
| | - Aleksander K Otcherednoy
- Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya emb. 18, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia
| | - Sergey V Markin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lavrentieva av., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
| | - Ksenia A Kolobova
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lavrentieva av., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
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17
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Brand CM, Colbran LL, Capra JA. Predicting Archaic Hominin Phenotypes from Genomic Data. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2022; 23:591-612. [PMID: 35440148 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genom-111521-121903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Ancient DNA provides a powerful window into the biology of extant and extinct species, including humans' closest relatives: Denisovans and Neanderthals. Here, we review what is known about archaic hominin phenotypes from genomic data and how those inferences have been made. We contend that understanding the influence of variants on lower-level molecular phenotypes-such as gene expression and protein function-is a promising approach to using ancient DNA to learn about archaic hominin traits. Molecular phenotypes have simpler genetic architectures than organism-level complex phenotypes, and this approach enables moving beyond association studies by proposing hypotheses about the effects of archaic variants that are testable in model systems. The major challenge to understanding archaic hominin phenotypes is broadening our ability to accurately map genotypes to phenotypes, but ongoing advances ensure that there will be much more to learn about archaic hominin phenotypes from their genomes. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, Volume 23 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin M Brand
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; , .,Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Laura L Colbran
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - John A Capra
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; , .,Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
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18
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Brown S, Massilani D, Kozlikin MB, Shunkov MV, Derevianko AP, Stoessel A, Jope-Street B, Meyer M, Kelso J, Pääbo S, Higham T, Douka K. The earliest Denisovans and their cultural adaptation. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:28-35. [PMID: 34824388 PMCID: PMC7612221 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01581-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2020] [Accepted: 09/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Since the initial identification of the Denisovans a decade ago, only a handful of their physical remains have been discovered. Here we analysed ~3,800 non-diagnostic bone fragments using collagen peptide mass fingerprinting to locate new hominin remains from Denisova Cave (Siberia, Russia). We identified five new hominin bones, four of which contained sufficient DNA for mitochondrial analysis. Three carry mitochondrial DNA of the Denisovan type and one was found to carry mtDNA of the Neanderthal type. The former come from the same archaeological layer near the base of the cave's sequence and are the oldest securely dated evidence of Denisovans at 200 ka (thousand years ago) (205-192 ka at 68.2% or 217-187 ka at 95% probability). The stratigraphic context in which they were located contains a wealth of archaeological material in the form of lithics and faunal remains, allowing us to determine the material culture associated with these early hominins and explore their behavioural and environmental adaptations. The combination of bone collagen fingerprinting and genetic analyses has so far more-than-doubled the number of hominin bones at Denisova Cave and has expanded our understanding of Denisovan and Neanderthal interactions, as well as their archaeological signatures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha Brown
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. .,Institute for Scientific Archaeology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Diyendo Massilani
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Maxim B. Kozlikin
- Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Michael V. Shunkov
- Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Anatoly P. Derevianko
- Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexander Stoessel
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany,Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany,Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Blair Jope-Street
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thomas Higham
- Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, RLAHA, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK,Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria
| | - Katerina Douka
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. .,Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
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19
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Serrano JG, Ordóñez AC, Fregel R. Paleogenomics of the prehistory of Europe: human migrations, domestication and disease. Ann Hum Biol 2021; 48:179-190. [PMID: 34459342 DOI: 10.1080/03014460.2021.1942205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
A substantial portion of ancient DNA research has been centred on understanding European populations' origin and evolution. A rchaeological evidence has already shown that the peopling of Europe involved an intricate pattern of demic and/or cultural diffusion since the Upper Palaeolithic, which became more evident during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. However, ancient DNA data has been crucial in determining if cultural changes occurred due to the movement of ideas or people. With the advent of next-generation sequencing and population-based paleogenomic research, ancient DNA studies have been directed not only at the study of continental human migrations, but also to the detailed analysis of particular archaeological sites, the processes of domestication, or the spread of disease during prehistoric times. With this vast paleogenomic effort added to a proper archaeological contextualisation of results, a deeper understanding of Europe's peopling is starting to emanate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier G Serrano
- Departamento de Bioquímica, Microbiología, Biología Celular y Genética, Faculta de Ciencias, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain
| | - Alejandra C Ordóñez
- Departamento de Bioquímica, Microbiología, Biología Celular y Genética, Faculta de Ciencias, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain.,Departamento Geografía e Historia, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain
| | - Rosa Fregel
- Departamento de Bioquímica, Microbiología, Biología Celular y Genética, Faculta de Ciencias, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain
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20
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Borry M, Hübner A, Rohrlach AB, Warinner C. PyDamage: automated ancient damage identification and estimation for contigs in ancient DNA de novo assembly. PeerJ 2021; 9:e11845. [PMID: 34395085 PMCID: PMC8323603 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11845] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA de novo assembly can be used to reconstruct longer stretches of DNA (contigs), including genes and even genomes, from short DNA sequencing reads. Applying this technique to metagenomic data derived from archaeological remains, such as paleofeces and dental calculus, we can investigate past microbiome functional diversity that may be absent or underrepresented in the modern microbiome gene catalogue. However, compared to modern samples, ancient samples are often burdened with environmental contamination, resulting in metagenomic datasets that represent mixtures of ancient and modern DNA. The ability to rapidly and reliably establish the authenticity and integrity of ancient samples is essential for ancient DNA studies, and the ability to distinguish between ancient and modern sequences is particularly important for ancient microbiome studies. Characteristic patterns of ancient DNA damage, namely DNA fragmentation and cytosine deamination (observed as C-to-T transitions) are typically used to authenticate ancient samples and sequences, but existing tools for inspecting and filtering aDNA damage either compute it at the read level, which leads to high data loss and lower quality when used in combination with de novo assembly, or require manual inspection, which is impractical for ancient assemblies that typically contain tens to hundreds of thousands of contigs. To address these challenges, we designed PyDamage, a robust, automated approach for aDNA damage estimation and authentication of de novo assembled aDNA. PyDamage uses a likelihood ratio based approach to discriminate between truly ancient contigs and contigs originating from modern contamination. We test PyDamage on both on simulated aDNA data and archaeological paleofeces, and we demonstrate its ability to reliably and automatically identify contigs bearing DNA damage characteristic of aDNA. Coupled with aDNA de novo assembly, Pydamage opens up new doors to explore functional diversity in ancient metagenomic datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Borry
- Microbiome Sciences Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeogenetics, Jena, Germany
| | - Alexander Hübner
- Microbiome Sciences Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeogenetics, Jena, Germany.,Faculty of Biological Sciences, Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Adam B Rohrlach
- Population Genetics Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeogenetics, Jena, Germany.,ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Christina Warinner
- Microbiome Sciences Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeogenetics, Jena, Germany.,Faculty of Biological Sciences, Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Germany.,Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
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21
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Zavala EI, Jacobs Z, Vernot B, Shunkov MV, Kozlikin MB, Derevianko AP, Essel E, de Fillipo C, Nagel S, Richter J, Romagné F, Schmidt A, Li B, O'Gorman K, Slon V, Kelso J, Pääbo S, Roberts RG, Meyer M. Pleistocene sediment DNA reveals hominin and faunal turnovers at Denisova Cave. Nature 2021; 595:399-403. [PMID: 34163072 PMCID: PMC8277575 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03675-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Denisova Cave in southern Siberia is the type locality of the Denisovans, an archaic hominin group who were related to Neanderthals1–4. The dozen hominin remains recovered from the deposits also include Neanderthals5,6 and the child of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan7, which suggests that Denisova Cave was a contact zone between these archaic hominins. However, uncertainties persist about the order in which these groups appeared at the site, the timing and environmental context of hominin occupation, and the association of particular hominin groups with archaeological assemblages5,8–11. Here we report the analysis of DNA from 728 sediment samples that were collected in a grid-like manner from layers dating to the Pleistocene epoch. We retrieved ancient faunal and hominin mitochondrial (mt)DNA from 685 and 175 samples, respectively. The earliest evidence for hominin mtDNA is of Denisovans, and is associated with early Middle Palaeolithic stone tools that were deposited approximately 250,000 to 170,000 years ago; Neanderthal mtDNA first appears towards the end of this period. We detect a turnover in the mtDNA of Denisovans that coincides with changes in the composition of faunal mtDNA, and evidence that Denisovans and Neanderthals occupied the site repeatedly—possibly until, or after, the onset of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic at least 45,000 years ago, when modern human mtDNA is first recorded in the sediments. Ancient mitochondrial DNA from sediments reveals the sequence of Denisovan, Neanderthal and faunal occupation of Denisova Cave, and evidence for the appearance of modern humans at least 45,000 years ago.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena I Zavala
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Zenobia Jacobs
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. .,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
| | - Benjamin Vernot
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Michael V Shunkov
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Maxim B Kozlikin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Anatoly P Derevianko
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Elena Essel
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cesare de Fillipo
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sarah Nagel
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Julia Richter
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Frédéric Romagné
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anna Schmidt
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Bo Li
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kieran O'Gorman
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Viviane Slon
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.,Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.,The Shmunis Family Anthropology Institute, The Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Janet Kelso
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Richard G Roberts
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. .,Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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22
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Vernot B, Zavala EI, Gómez-Olivencia A, Jacobs Z, Slon V, Mafessoni F, Romagné F, Pearson A, Petr M, Sala N, Pablos A, Aranburu A, de Castro JMB, Carbonell E, Li B, Krajcarz MT, Krivoshapkin AI, Kolobova KA, Kozlikin MB, Shunkov MV, Derevianko AP, Viola B, Grote S, Essel E, Herráez DL, Nagel S, Nickel B, Richter J, Schmidt A, Peter B, Kelso J, Roberts RG, Arsuaga JL, Meyer M. Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments. Science 2021; 372:science.abf1667. [PMID: 33858989 DOI: 10.1126/science.abf1667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Bones and teeth are important sources of Pleistocene hominin DNA, but are rarely recovered at archaeological sites. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been retrieved from cave sediments but provides limited value for studying population relationships. We therefore developed methods for the enrichment and analysis of nuclear DNA from sediments and applied them to cave deposits in western Europe and southern Siberia dated to between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago. We detected a population replacement in northern Spain about 100,000 years ago, which was accompanied by a turnover of mtDNA. We also identified two radiation events in Neanderthal history during the early part of the Late Pleistocene. Our work lays the ground for studying the population history of ancient hominins from trace amounts of nuclear DNA in sediments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Vernot
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Elena I Zavala
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Asier Gómez-Olivencia
- Departamento de Geología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain.,Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.,Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Zenobia Jacobs
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.,Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Viviane Slon
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Anatomy and Anthropology and Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.,The Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Tel Aviv University, 6997801 Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Fabrizio Mafessoni
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Frédéric Romagné
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Alice Pearson
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Martin Petr
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nohemi Sala
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.,Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Adrián Pablos
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.,Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Arantza Aranburu
- Departamento de Geología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain.,Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
| | | | - Eudald Carbonell
- Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.,Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
| | - Bo Li
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.,Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Maciej T Krajcarz
- Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
| | - Andrey I Krivoshapkin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.,Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Kseniya A Kolobova
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Maxim B Kozlikin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Michael V Shunkov
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Anatoly P Derevianko
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Bence Viola
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Steffi Grote
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Elena Essel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - David López Herráez
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sarah Nagel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Birgit Nickel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Julia Richter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anna Schmidt
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Richard G Roberts
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.,Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Juan-Luis Arsuaga
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.,Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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23
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Oliva A, Tobler R, Cooper A, Llamas B, Souilmi Y. Systematic benchmark of ancient DNA read mapping. Brief Bioinform 2021; 22:6217726. [PMID: 33834210 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbab076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 02/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The current standard practice for assembling individual genomes involves mapping millions of short DNA sequences (also known as DNA 'reads') against a pre-constructed reference genome. Mapping vast amounts of short reads in a timely manner is a computationally challenging task that inevitably produces artefacts, including biases against alleles not found in the reference genome. This reference bias and other mapping artefacts are expected to be exacerbated in ancient DNA (aDNA) studies, which rely on the analysis of low quantities of damaged and very short DNA fragments (~30-80 bp). Nevertheless, the current gold-standard mapping strategies for aDNA studies have effectively remained unchanged for nearly a decade, during which time new software has emerged. In this study, we used simulated aDNA reads from three different human populations to benchmark the performance of 30 distinct mapping strategies implemented across four different read mapping software-BWA-aln, BWA-mem, NovoAlign and Bowtie2-and quantified the impact of reference bias in downstream population genetic analyses. We show that specific NovoAlign, BWA-aln and BWA-mem parameterizations achieve high mapping precision with low levels of reference bias, particularly after filtering out reads with low mapping qualities. However, unbiased NovoAlign results required the use of an IUPAC reference genome. While relevant only to aDNA projects where reference population data are available, the benefit of using an IUPAC reference demonstrates the value of incorporating population genetic information into the aDNA mapping process, echoing recent results based on graph genome representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrien Oliva
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, Australia
| | - Raymond Tobler
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, Australia
| | - Alan Cooper
- Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow specializing in ancient DNA, Australia
| | - Bastien Llamas
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, Australia
| | - Yassine Souilmi
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, Australia
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24
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Reevaluating the timing of Neanderthal disappearance in Northwest Europe. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2022466118. [PMID: 33798098 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2022466118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Elucidating when Neanderthal populations disappeared from Eurasia is a key question in paleoanthropology, and Belgium is one of the key regions for studying the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Previous radiocarbon dating placed the Spy Neanderthals among the latest surviving Neanderthals in Northwest Europe with reported dates as young as 23,880 ± 240 B.P. (OxA-8912). Questions were raised, however, regarding the reliability of these dates. Soil contamination and carbon-based conservation products are known to cause problems during the radiocarbon dating of bulk collagen samples. Employing a compound-specific approach that is today the most efficient in removing contamination and ancient genomic analysis, we demonstrate here that previous dates produced on Neanderthal specimens from Spy were inaccurately young by up to 10,000 y due to the presence of unremoved contamination. Our compound-specific radiocarbon dates on the Neanderthals from Spy and those from Engis and Fonds-de-Forêt demonstrate that they disappeared from Northwest Europe at 44,200 to 40,600 cal B.P. (at 95.4% probability), much earlier than previously suggested. Our data contribute significantly to refining models for Neanderthal disappearance in Europe and, more broadly, show that chronometric models regarding the appearance or disappearance of animal or hominin groups should be based only on radiocarbon dates obtained using robust pretreatment methods.
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25
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Abstract
Genealogical tree modeling is essential for estimating evolutionary parameters in population genetics and phylogenetics. Recent mathematical results concerning ranked genealogies without leaf labels unlock opportunities in the analysis of evolutionary trees. In particular, comparisons between ranked genealogies facilitate the study of evolutionary processes of different organisms sampled at multiple time periods. We propose metrics on ranked tree shapes and ranked genealogies for lineages isochronously and heterochronously sampled. Our proposed tree metrics make it possible to conduct statistical analyses of ranked tree shapes and timed ranked tree shapes or ranked genealogies. Such analyses allow us to assess differences in tree distributions, quantify estimation uncertainty, and summarize tree distributions. We show the utility of our metrics via simulations and an application in infectious diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaehee Kim
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | | | - Julia A Palacios
- Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
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26
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Romandini M, Oxilia G, Bortolini E, Peyrégne S, Delpiano D, Nava A, Panetta D, Di Domenico G, Martini P, Arrighi S, Badino F, Figus C, Lugli F, Marciani G, Silvestrini S, Menghi Sartorio JC, Terlato G, Hublin JJ, Meyer M, Bondioli L, Higham T, Slon V, Peresani M, Benazzi S. A late Neanderthal tooth from northeastern Italy. J Hum Evol 2020; 147:102867. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102867] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2019] [Revised: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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27
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Bokelmann L, Glocke I, Meyer M. Reconstructing double-stranded DNA fragments on a single-molecule level reveals patterns of degradation in ancient samples. Genome Res 2020; 30:1449-1457. [PMID: 32963029 PMCID: PMC7605269 DOI: 10.1101/gr.263863.120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Extensive manipulations involved in the preparation of DNA samples for sequencing have hitherto made it impossible to determine the precise structure of double-stranded DNA fragments being sequenced, such as the presence of blunt ends, single-stranded overhangs, or single-strand breaks. We here describe MatchSeq, a method that combines single-stranded DNA library preparation from diluted DNA samples with computational sequence matching, allowing the reconstruction of double-stranded DNA fragments on a single-molecule level. The application of MatchSeq to Neanderthal DNA, a particularly complex source of degraded DNA, reveals that 1- or 2-nt overhangs and blunt ends dominate the ends of ancient DNA molecules and that short gaps exist, which are predominantly caused by the loss of individual purines. We further show that deamination of cytosine to uracil occurs in both single- and double-stranded contexts close to the ends of molecules, and that single-stranded parts of DNA fragments are enriched in pyrimidines. MatchSeq provides unprecedented resolution for interrogating the structures of fragmented double-stranded DNA and can be applied to fragmented double-stranded DNA isolated from any biological source. The method relies on well-established laboratory techniques and can easily be integrated into routine data generation. This possibility is shown by the successful reconstruction of double-stranded DNA fragments from previously published single-stranded sequence data, allowing a more comprehensive characterization of the biochemical properties not only of ancient DNA but also of cell-free DNA from human blood plasma, a clinically relevant marker for the diagnosis and monitoring of disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Bokelmann
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Isabelle Glocke
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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28
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Martiniano R, Garrison E, Jones ER, Manica A, Durbin R. Removing reference bias and improving indel calling in ancient DNA data analysis by mapping to a sequence variation graph. Genome Biol 2020; 21:250. [PMID: 32943086 PMCID: PMC7499850 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-020-02160-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND During the last decade, the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) sequence has become a powerful tool for the study of past human populations. However, the degraded nature of aDNA means that aDNA molecules are short and frequently mutated by post-mortem chemical modifications. These features decrease read mapping accuracy and increase reference bias, in which reads containing non-reference alleles are less likely to be mapped than those containing reference alleles. Alternative approaches have been developed to replace the linear reference with a variation graph which includes known alternative variants at each genetic locus. Here, we evaluate the use of variation graph software vg to avoid reference bias for aDNA and compare with existing methods. RESULTS We use vg to align simulated and real aDNA samples to a variation graph containing 1000 Genome Project variants and compare with the same data aligned with bwa to the human linear reference genome. Using vg leads to a balanced allelic representation at polymorphic sites, effectively removing reference bias, and more sensitive variant detection in comparison with bwa, especially for insertions and deletions (indels). Alternative approaches that use relaxed bwa parameter settings or filter bwa alignments can also reduce bias but can have lower sensitivity than vg, particularly for indels. CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate that aligning aDNA sequences to variation graphs effectively mitigates the impact of reference bias when analyzing aDNA, while retaining mapping sensitivity and allowing detection of variation, in particular indel variation, that was previously missed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Martiniano
- Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0DH UK
| | - Erik Garrison
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, CB10 1SA UK
- Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA
| | - Eppie R. Jones
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ UK
| | - Andrea Manica
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ UK
| | - Richard Durbin
- Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0DH UK
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, CB10 1SA UK
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29
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Peyrégne S, Peter BM. AuthentiCT: a model of ancient DNA damage to estimate the proportion of present-day DNA contamination. Genome Biol 2020; 21:246. [PMID: 32933569 PMCID: PMC7490890 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-020-02123-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Contamination from present-day DNA is a fundamental issue when studying ancient DNA from historical or archaeological material, and quantifying the amount of contamination is essential for downstream analyses. We present AuthentiCT, a command-line tool to estimate the proportion of present-day DNA contamination in ancient DNA datasets generated from single-stranded DNA libraries. The prediction is based solely on the patterns of post-mortem damage observed on ancient DNA sequences. The method has the power to quantify contamination from as few as 10,000 mapped sequences, making it particularly useful for analysing specimens that are poorly preserved or for which little data is available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Benjamin M Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
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30
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Breyl M. Triangulating Neanderthal cognition: A tale of not seeing the forest for the trees. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2020; 12:e1545. [PMID: 32918796 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2020] [Revised: 08/09/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The inference of Neanderthal cognition, including their cultural and linguistic capabilities, has persisted as a fiercely debated research topic for decades. This lack of consensus is substantially based on inherent uncertainties in reconstructing prehistory out of indirect evidence as well as other methodological limitations. Further factors include systemic difficulties within interdisciplinary discourse, data artifacts, historic research biases, and the sheer scope of the relevant research. Given the degrees of freedom in interpretation ensuing from these complications, any attempt to find approximate answers to the yet unsettled pertinent discourse may not rest on single studies, but instead a careful and comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis of findings. Triangulating Neanderthals' cognition by considering the plethora of data, diverse perspectives and aforementioned complexities present within the literature constitutes the currently most reliable pathway to tentative conclusions. While some uncertainties remain, such an approach paints the picture of an extensive shared humanity between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Linguistics > Evolution of Language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Breyl
- Germanistik, Komparatistik, Nordistik, Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany
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31
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New perspectives on Neanderthal dispersal and turnover from Stajnia Cave (Poland). Sci Rep 2020; 10:14778. [PMID: 32901061 PMCID: PMC7479612 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71504-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The Micoquian is the broadest and longest enduring cultural facies of the Late Middle Palaeolithic that spread across the periglacial and boreal environments of Europe between Eastern France, Poland, and Northern Caucasus. Here, we present new data from the archaeological record of Stajnia Cave (Poland) and the paleogenetic analysis of a Neanderthal molar S5000, found in a Micoquian context. Our results demonstrate that the mtDNA genome of Stajnia S5000 dates to MIS 5a making the tooth the oldest Neanderthal specimen from Central-Eastern Europe. Furthermore, S5000 mtDNA has the fewest number of differences to mtDNA of Mezmaiskaya 1 Neanderthal from Northern Caucasus, and is more distant from almost contemporaneous Neanderthals of Scladina and Hohlenstein-Stadel. This observation and the technological affinity between Poland and the Northern Caucasus could be the result of increased mobility of Neanderthals that changed their subsistence strategy for coping with the new low biomass environments and the increased foraging radius of gregarious animals. The Prut and Dniester rivers were probably used as the main corridors of dispersal. The persistence of the Micoquian techno-complex in South-Eastern Europe infers that this axis of mobility was also used at the beginning of MIS 3 when a Neanderthal population turnover occurred in the Northern Caucasus.
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32
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Hanel A, Carlberg C. Skin colour and vitamin D: An update. Exp Dermatol 2020; 29:864-875. [PMID: 32621306 DOI: 10.1111/exd.14142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2020] [Revised: 06/14/2020] [Accepted: 06/25/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Homo sapiens evolved in East Africa and had dark skin, hair, and eyes, in order to protect against deleterious consequences of intensive UV radiation at equatorial latitudes. Intensive skin pigmentation was thought to bear the risk of inefficient vitamin D3 synthesis in the skin. This initiated the hypothesis that within the past 75 000 years, in which humans migrated to higher latitudes in Asia and Europe, the need for vitamin D3 synthesis served as an evolutionary driver for skin lightening. In this review, we summarize the recent archeogenomic reconstruction of population admixture in Europe and demonstrate that skin lightening happened as late as 5000 years ago through immigration of lighter pigmented populations from western Anatolia and the Russian steppe but not primarily via evolutionary pressure for vitamin D3 synthesis. We show that variations in genes encoding for proteins being responsible for the transport, metabolism and signalling of vitamin D provide alternative mechanisms of adaptation to a life in northern latitudes without suffering from consequences of vitamin D deficiency. This includes hypotheses explaining differences in the vitamin D status and response index of European populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Hanel
- School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
| | - Carsten Carlberg
- School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
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Peyrégne S, Prüfer K. Present-Day DNA Contamination in Ancient DNA Datasets. Bioessays 2020; 42:e2000081. [PMID: 32648350 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202000081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Present-day contamination can lead to false conclusions in ancient DNA studies. A number of methods are available to estimate contamination, which use a variety of signals and are appropriate for different types of data. Here an overview of currently available methods highlighting their strengths and weaknesses is provided, and a classification based on the signals used to estimate contamination is proposed. This overview aims at enabling researchers to choose the most appropriate methods for their dataset. Based on this classification, potential avenues for the further development of methods are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
| | - Kay Prüfer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.,Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, 07745, Germany
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Mafessoni F, Grote S, de Filippo C, Slon V, Kolobova KA, Viola B, Markin SV, Chintalapati M, Peyrégne S, Skov L, Skoglund P, Krivoshapkin AI, Derevianko AP, Meyer M, Kelso J, Peter B, Prüfer K, Pääbo S. A high-coverage Neandertal genome from Chagyrskaya Cave. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:15132-15136. [PMID: 32546518 PMCID: PMC7334501 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004944117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 113] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
We sequenced the genome of a Neandertal from Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains, Russia, to 27-fold genomic coverage. We show that this Neandertal was a female and that she was more related to Neandertals in western Eurasia [Prüfer et al., Science 358, 655-658 (2017); Hajdinjak et al., Nature 555, 652-656 (2018)] than to Neandertals who lived earlier in Denisova Cave [Prüfer et al., Nature 505, 43-49 (2014)], which is located about 100 km away. About 12.9% of the Chagyrskaya genome is spanned by homozygous regions that are between 2.5 and 10 centiMorgans (cM) long. This is consistent with the fact that Siberian Neandertals lived in relatively isolated populations of less than 60 individuals. In contrast, a Neandertal from Europe, a Denisovan from the Altai Mountains, and ancient modern humans seem to have lived in populations of larger sizes. The availability of three Neandertal genomes of high quality allows a view of genetic features that were unique to Neandertals and that are likely to have been at high frequency among them. We find that genes highly expressed in the striatum in the basal ganglia of the brain carry more amino-acid-changing substitutions than genes expressed elsewhere in the brain, suggesting that the striatum may have evolved unique functions in Neandertals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrizio Mafessoni
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Steffi Grote
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cesare de Filippo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Viviane Slon
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kseniya A Kolobova
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Bence Viola
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2, Canada
| | - Sergey V Markin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Manjusha Chintalapati
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stephane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Laurits Skov
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Pontus Skoglund
- Ancient Genomics Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute, NW1 1AT London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrey I Krivoshapkin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Anatoly P Derevianko
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kay Prüfer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;
- Human Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna-son, 904-0495 Okinawa, Japan
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Schroeder L. Revolutionary Fossils, Ancient Biomolecules, and Reflections in Ethics and Decolonization: Paleoanthropology in 2019. AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/aman.13410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Schroeder
- Department of Anthropology University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
- Human Evolution Research Institute University of Cape Town Rondebosch Western Cape South Africa
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What have the revelations about Neanderthal DNA revealed about Homo sapiens? ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW 2020. [DOI: 10.2478/anre-2020-0008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Genetic studies have presented increasing indications about the complexity of the interactions between Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans, during Pleistocene. The results indicate potential replacement or admixture of the groups of hominins that lived in the same region at different times. Recently, the time of separation among these hominins in relation to the Last Common Ancestor – LCA has been reasonably well established. Events of mixing with emphasis on the Neanderthal gene flow into H. sapiens outside Africa, Denisovans into H. sapiens ancestors in Oceania and continental Asia, Neanderthals into Denisovans, as well as the origin of some phenotypic features in specific populations such as the color of the skin, eyes, hair and predisposition to develop certain kinds of diseases have also been found. The current information supports the existence of both replacement and interbreeding events, and indicates the need to revise the two main explanatory models, the Multiregional and the Out-of-Africa hypotheses, about the origin and evolution of H. sapiens and its co-relatives. There is definitely no longer the possibility of justifying only one model over the other. This paper aims to provide a brief review and update on the debate around this issue, considering the advances brought about by the recent genetic as well as morphological traits analyses.
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Gokcumen O. Archaic hominin introgression into modern human genomes. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 171 Suppl 70:60-73. [PMID: 31702050 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23951] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2019] [Revised: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Ancient genomes from multiple Neanderthal and the Denisovan individuals, along with DNA sequence data from diverse contemporary human populations strongly support the prevalence of gene flow among different hominins. Recent studies now provide evidence for multiple gene flow events that leave genetic signatures in extant and ancient human populations. These events include older gene flow from an unknown hominin in Africa predating out-of-Africa migrations, and in the last 50,000-100,000 years, multiple gene flow events from Neanderthals into ancestral Eurasian human populations, and at least three distinct introgression events from a lineage close to Denisovans into ancestors of extant Southeast Asian and Oceanic populations. Some of these introgression events may have happened as late as 20,000 years before present and reshaped the way in which we think about human evolution. In this review, I aim to answer anthropologically relevant questions with regard to recent research on ancient hominin introgression in the human lineage. How have genomic data from archaic hominins changed our view of human evolution? Is there any doubt about whether introgression from ancient hominins to the ancestors of present-day humans occurred? What is the current view of human evolutionary history from the genomics perspective? What is the impact of introgression on human phenotypes?
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Affiliation(s)
- Omer Gokcumen
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Campus, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
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Bokelmann L, Hajdinjak M, Peyrégne S, Brace S, Essel E, de Filippo C, Glocke I, Grote S, Mafessoni F, Nagel S, Kelso J, Prüfer K, Vernot B, Barnes I, Pääbo S, Meyer M, Stringer C. A genetic analysis of the Gibraltar Neanderthals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:15610-15615. [PMID: 31308224 PMCID: PMC6681707 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1903984116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Forbes' Quarry and Devil's Tower partial crania from Gibraltar are among the first Neanderthal remains ever found. Here, we show that small amounts of ancient DNA are preserved in the petrous bones of the 2 individuals despite unfavorable climatic conditions. However, the endogenous Neanderthal DNA is present among an overwhelming excess of recent human DNA. Using improved DNA library construction methods that enrich for DNA fragments carrying deaminated cytosine residues, we were able to sequence 70 and 0.4 megabase pairs (Mbp) nuclear DNA of the Forbes' Quarry and Devil's Tower specimens, respectively, as well as large parts of the mitochondrial genome of the Forbes' Quarry individual. We confirm that the Forbes' Quarry individual was a female and the Devil's Tower individual a male. We also show that the Forbes' Quarry individual is genetically more similar to the ∼120,000-y-old Neanderthals from Scladina Cave in Belgium (Scladina I-4A) and Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave in Germany, as well as to a ∼60,000- to 70,000-y-old Neanderthal from Russia (Mezmaiskaya 1), than to a ∼49,000-y-old Neanderthal from El Sidrón (El Sidrón 1253) in northern Spain and other younger Neanderthals from Europe and western Asia. This suggests that the Forbes' Quarry fossil predates the latter Neanderthals. The preservation of archaic human DNA in the warm coastal climate of Gibraltar, close to the shores of Africa, raises hopes for the future recovery of archaic human DNA from regions in which climatic conditions are less than optimal for DNA preservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Bokelmann
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
| | - Mateja Hajdinjak
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Selina Brace
- Centre for Human Evolution Research, Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom
| | - Elena Essel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cesare de Filippo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Isabelle Glocke
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Steffi Grote
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Fabrizio Mafessoni
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sarah Nagel
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kay Prüfer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin Vernot
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ian Barnes
- Centre for Human Evolution Research, Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Chris Stringer
- Centre for Human Evolution Research, Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom
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