EsepBib's Rothberg:JM [3 articles]

Abstract

A complete mitochondrial (mt) genome sequence was reconstructed from a 38,000 year-old Neandertal individual with 8341 mtDNA sequences identified among 4.8 Gb of DNA generated from approximately 0.3 g of bone. Analysis of the assembled sequence unequivocally establishes that the Neandertal mtDNA falls outside the variation of extant human mtDNAs, and allows an estimate of the divergence date between the two mtDNA lineages of 660,000 +/- 140,000 years. Of the 13 proteins encoded in the mtDNA, subunit 2 of cytochrome c ...

Abstract

Although it is well established that Neandertals are the hominid form most closely related to present-day humans, their exact relationship with modern humans remains a topic of debate (Hublin et al., 2006, Soficaru et al., 2006, Harvati et al., 2007). Molecular genetic data first spoke to this issue in 1997, when a 379 base pair section of the hypervariable region I (HVRI) of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) was determined from the Neandertal-type specimen found in 1856 in Neander Valley, near Düsseldorf, ...

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 ...