Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Sequencing and Analysis of Neanderthal Genomic DNA
James P. Noonan,1,2Graham Coop,3Sridhar Kudaravalli,3Doug Smith,1Johannes Krause,4Joe Alessi,1Feng Chen,1Darren Platt,1Svante Pääbo,4Jonathan K. Pritchard,3Edward M. Rubin1,2*
Our knowledge of Neanderthals is based on a limited number ofremains and artifacts from which we must make inferences abouttheir biology, behavior, and relationship to ourselves. Here,we describe the characterization of these extinct hominids froma new perspective, based on the development of a Neanderthalmetagenomic library and its high-throughput sequencing and analysis.Several lines of evidence indicate that the 65,250 base pairsof hominid sequence so far identified in the library are ofNeanderthal origin, the strongest being the ascertainment ofsequence identities between Neanderthal and chimpanzee at siteswhere the human genomic sequence is different. These resultsenabled us to calculate the human-Neanderthal divergence timebased on multiple randomly distributed autosomal loci. Our analysessuggest that on average the Neanderthal genomic sequence weobtained and the reference human genome sequence share a mostrecent common ancestor 706,000 years ago, and that the humanand Neanderthal ancestral populations split 370,000 years ago,before the emergence of anatomically modern humans. Our findingthat the Neanderthal and human genomes are at least 99.5% identicalled us to develop and successfully implement a targeted methodfor recovering specific ancient DNA sequences from metagenomiclibraries. This initial analysis of the Neanderthal genome advancesour understanding of the evolutionary relationship of Homo sapiensand Homo neanderthalensis and signifies the dawn of Neanderthalgenomics.
1 U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA. 2 Genomics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. 3 Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, 920 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. 4 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: emrubin{at}lbl.gov
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
In Science Magazine
LETTERS
Thomas C. Erren, Paul Cullen, Michael Erren;, Edward M. Rubin, and James P. Noonan (23 March 2007) Science315 (5819), 1664.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5819.1664] |Full Text »|PDF »
NEWS FOCUS
Elizabeth Pennisi (17 November 2006) Science314 (5802), 1068.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.314.5802.1068] |Summary »|Full Text »|PDF »
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Close correspondence between quantitative- and molecular-genetic divergence times for Neandertals and modern humans.
T. D. Weaver, C. C. Roseman, and C. B. Stringer (2008)
PNAS
105, 4645-4649
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
A Melanocortin 1 Receptor Allele Suggests Varying Pigmentation Among Neanderthals.
C. Lalueza-Fox, H. Rompler, D. Caramelli, C. Staubert, G. Catalano, D. Hughes, N. Rohland, E. Pilli, L. Longo, S. Condemi, et al. (2007)
Science
318, 1453-1455
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Statistical evaluation of alternative models of human evolution.
N. J. R. Fagundes, N. Ray, M. Beaumont, S. Neuenschwander, F. M. Salzano, S. L. Bonatto, and L. Excoffier (2007)
PNAS
104, 17614-17619
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Whole-Genome Shotgun Sequencing of Mitochondria from Ancient Hair Shafts.
M. T. P. Gilbert, L. P. Tomsho, S. Rendulic, M. Packard, D. I. Drautz, A. Sher, A. Tikhonov, L. Dalen, T. Kuznetsova, P. Kosintsev, et al. (2007)
Science
317, 1927-1930
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Patterns of damage in genomic DNA sequences from a Neandertal.
A. W. Briggs, U. Stenzel, P. L. F. Johnson, R. E. Green, J. Kelso, K. Prufer, M. Meyer, J. Krause, M. T. Ronan, M. Lachmann, et al. (2007)
PNAS
104, 14616-14621
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
The Joint Allele-Frequency Spectrum in Closely Related Species.
H. Chen, R. E. Green, S. Paabo, and M. Slatkin (2007)
Genetics
177, 387-398
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Estimating the Number of Ancestral Lineages Using a Maximum-Likelihood Method Based on Rejection Sampling.
706,000 years ago, and that the human and Neanderthal ancestral populations split 
