Ancient DNA and Human Evolution Notes

Ancient DNA and Human Evolution

• Started with Egyptian mummies, looking at tissues

• Cloned DNA from mummies, PCR made this possible

• Ancient DNA carries modifications, degraded to short sections, can be contaminated and polluted with other DNA

• Studying cave bears provided insights to neanderthals

• Total replacement vs assimilation theories

• First mitochondrial dna share dabout 0.5 mya

• There is no mtDNA remaining from neanderthals today in humans

• Library based techniques can be amplified and immortalized to construct genome

• Found neanderthals bones in Vindija Cave, Croatia

• DNA extract is a mixture of microbial DNA deanimated DNA and contamination

• Focused on C-T changes, Deanimated DNA

• Europeans should share more variants with Neanderthals than Africans

• About half of the Neanderthal genome is available in people that live today

• Denisovans contribute DNA in mainland Asia

• “Leaky Replacement” Genetic replacement and some contribution

• People that live in Europe today share more with the genome from Croatia

• Direct evidence of Neanderthal mixing in Europe with mandible

• A risk variant for type 2 Diabetes came from Neanderthals, possible adaptation to starvation

• High altitude adaptation in Tibet came from Neanderthals

• DNA can be obtained from archaeological sediments

• There are some functions that are unique to modern humans

• There are about 30,000 single nucleotide changes that are fixed in present day humans

• Humans have less GMP, AMP, Guanine and Adenine in brain

• Humanized mice have decreased ADSL activity