Drafting Human Ancestry: What Does the Neanderthal Genome Tell Us about Hominid Evolution? Commentary on Green et al. (2010)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Drafting Human Ancestry

T2 - What Does the Neanderthal Genome Tell Us about Hominid Evolution? Commentary on Green et al. (2010)

AU - Hofreiter, Michael

PY - 2011/2

Y1 - 2011/2

N2 - Ten years after the first draft versions of the human genome were announced, technical progress in both DNA sequencing and ancient DNA analyses has allowed a research team around Ed Green and Svante Paabo to complete this task from infinitely more difficult hominid samples: a few pieces of bone originating from our closest, albeit extinct, relatives, the Neanderthals. Pulling the Neanderthal sequences out of a sea of contaminating environmental DNA impregnating the bones and at the same time avoiding the problems of contamination with modern human DNA is in itself a remarkable accomplishment. However, the crucial question in the long run is, what can we learn from such genomic data about hominid evolution?

AB - Ten years after the first draft versions of the human genome were announced, technical progress in both DNA sequencing and ancient DNA analyses has allowed a research team around Ed Green and Svante Paabo to complete this task from infinitely more difficult hominid samples: a few pieces of bone originating from our closest, albeit extinct, relatives, the Neanderthals. Pulling the Neanderthal sequences out of a sea of contaminating environmental DNA impregnating the bones and at the same time avoiding the problems of contamination with modern human DNA is in itself a remarkable accomplishment. However, the crucial question in the long run is, what can we learn from such genomic data about hominid evolution?

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79961136127&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Editorial

VL - 83

SP - 111

JO - Human Biology

JF - Human Biology

SN - 0018-7143

IS - 1

ER -