While advances in sequencing large numbers of base-pairs of ancient DNA (aDNA), including nuclear genome sequences, of Neanderthals has been in the news earlier this year, the big news today is publication of the first results in two papers, appearing in two scientific journals (
Nature and
Science).
From
Nature, the Article:
Nature 444, 330-336 (16 November 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature05336; Received 14 July 2006; Accepted 11 October 2006
Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA
Richard E. Green1, Johannes Krause1, Susan E. Ptak1, Adrian W. Briggs1, Michael T. Ronan2, Jan F. Simons2, Lei Du2, Michael Egholm2, Jonathan M. Rothberg2, Maja Paunovic3,4 and Svante Pääbo1
ABSTRACT. Neanderthals are the extinct hominid group most closely related to contemporary humans, so their genome offers a unique opportunity to identify genetic changes specific to anatomically fully modern humans. We have identified a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal fossil that is exceptionally free of contamination from modern human DNA. Direct high-throughput sequencing of a DNA extract from this fossil has thus far yielded over one million base pairs of hominoid nuclear DNA sequences. Comparison with the human and chimpanzee genomes reveals that modern human and Neanderthal DNA sequences diverged on average about 500,000 years ago. Existing technology and fossil resources are now sufficient to initiate a Neanderthal genome-sequencing effort.
1. Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
2. 454 Life Sciences, 20 Commercial Street, Branford, Connecticut 06405, USA
3. Institute of Quaternary Paleontology and Geology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, A. Kovacica 5/II, HR-10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
4. Deceased.
Correspondence to: Richard E. Green1 Neanderthal fossil extract sequences were deposited at EBI with accession numbers CAAN01000001–CAAN01369630. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.E.G. (Email: green@eva.mpg.de). News and Views:
Evolutionary biology: Ancient genomics is born
David M. Lambert and Craig D. Millar
Nature 444, 275-276 (16 November 2006) doi:10.1038/444275a
News:
Neanderthal genome sees first light
Rex Dalton
Nature 444, 254 (16 November 2006) doi:10.1038/443278a
All of the above available to subscribers of
Nature from:
NATURE WEB FOCUS HERE. Unfortunately, not much is free except the video podcast, but the papers are beginning to circulate if you know where to look.
And from the journal
Science, in collaboration with the authors of the
Nature article, but using a different method:
Noonan, J.P., Coop, G., Kudaravalli, S., Smith, D., Krause, J., Alessi, J., Feng Chen, Platt, D., Pääbo, S., Pritchard, J.K. & Rubin, E.M. (2006). Sequencing and analysis of Neanderthal genomic DNA. Science. vol. 314 (17 November), pp. 1113-1118.
The November 17, 2006 issue of
Science does not yet appear as the current issue on the
Science magazine homepage, but for some reason the article is available free (temporarily, it seems) as a pdf (Adobe reader required) download from:
http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/temp/1113.pdfAlso a web article:
Neandertal DNA Comes to Life
By Elizabeth PennisiScienceNOW Daily News
15 November 2006. Available:
CLICK HEREI'm sure this news will be all over the blogosphere during the next few days. In the meantime, for those of us with only a foggy understanding of the techniques involved in sequencing ancient DNA, the New York Times is usually a fairly reliable source for information, so I'll send along this URL for the story by reporter Nicholas Wade:
CLICK HERE . Click past the advertisement. Registration may be required.
And finally, John Hawks, who I've come to rely on for good explanations, has promised to blog extensively on the subject during the next few days, but his primary server is giving him trouble today. Nevertheless, a brief beginning at:
CLICK HEREDar
