Neanderthals are thought to have disappeared in Europe approximately 39,000–41,000 years ago but they have contributed 1–3% of the DNA of present-day people in Eurasia. In the study by Fu et al., DNA from a 37,000–42,000-year-old modern human from Peştera cu Oase, Romania was analyzed. Although the specimen contained small amounts of human DNA, an enrichment strategy was used to isolate sites that were distinct between Neanderthals and present-day humans. They found that on the order of 6–9% of the genome of the Oase individual is derived from Neanderthals, more than any other modern human sequenced to date. Three chromosomal segments of Neanderthal ancestry are over 50 centimorgans in size, indicating that this individual had a Neanderthal ancestor as recently as four to six generations back. However, the Oase individual did not share more alleles with later Europeans than with East Asians, suggesting that the Oase population did not contribute substantially to later humans in Europe.
Recent comments