Archaic admixture in the human genome.

Full Abstract

One of the enduring questions in the evolution of our species surrounds the fate of 'archaic' forms of Homo. Did Neanderthals go extinct without interbreeding with modern humans 25-40 thousand years ago or are their genes present among modern-day Europeans? Recent work suggests that Neanderthals and an as yet unidentified archaic African population contributed to at least 5% of the modern European and West African gene pools, respectively. Extensive sequencing of Neanderthal and other archaic human nuclear DNA has the potential to answer this question definitively within the next few years.

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Author information

Author/s: Wall, Jeffrey D (JD); Hammer, Michael F (MF);

Affiliation: Program in Molecular and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.; Review

Journal: Current opinion in genetics & development (Curr Opin Genet Dev), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Dec; vol 16 (issue 6) : pp 606-10

Dates: Created 2006/11/20; Completed 2007/02/07;

PMID: 17027252, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Genome, Human
Hominidae - genetics
Humans

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