A high-coverage Neandertal genome from Vindija Cave in Croatia
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Publication Date
10-5-2017
Publication Title
Science
Volume Number
358
Issue Number
6363
Abstract
To date, the only Neandertal genome that has been sequenced to high quality is from an individual found in Southern Siberia. We sequenced the genome of a female Neandertal from ~50,000 years ago from Vindija Cave, Croatia, to ~30-fold genomic coverage. She carried 1.6 differences per 10,000 base pairs between the two copies of her genome, fewer than present-day humans, suggesting that Neandertal populations were of small size. Our analyses indicate that she was more closely related to the Neandertals that mixed with the ancestors of present-day humans living outside of sub-Saharan Africa than the previously sequenced Neandertal from Siberia, allowing 10 to 20% more Neandertal DNA to be identified in present-day humans, including variants involved in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, schizophrenia, and other diseases.
Keywords
Neanderthals, Genome sequencing, Ancient DNA, Human evolution, Population genetics
Document Type
Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao1887
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Prüfer, Kay; de Filippo, Cesare; Grote, Steffi; Mafessoni, Fabrizio; Korlević, Petra; Hajdinjak, Mateja; Vernot, Benjamin; Skov, Laurits; Hsieh, Pinghsun; Peyrégne, Stéphane; Reher, David; Hopfe, Charlotte; Nagel, Sarah; Maricic, Tomislav; Fu, Qiaomei; Theunert, Christoph; Rogers, Rebekah; Skoglund, Pontus; Chintalapati, Manjusha; Dannemann, Michael; Nelson, Bradley J.; Key, Felix M.; Rudan, Pavao; Kućan, Željko; Gušić, Ivan; Golovanova, Liubov V.; Doronichev, Vladimir B.; Patterson, Nick; Reich, David; Eichler, Evan E.; Slatkin, Montgomery; and Schierup, Mikkel H., "A high-coverage Neandertal genome from Vindija Cave in Croatia" (2017). KIP Articles. 8672.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/8672
