Introduction

Analysis of Neandertal DNA holds great potential for investigating the population history of this group of hominins, but progress has been limited due to the rarity of samples and damaged state of the DNA. We present a method of targeted ancient DNA sequence retrieval that greatly reduces sample destruction and sequencing demands and use this method to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes of five Neandertals from across their geographic range. We find that mtDNA genetic diversity in Neandertals that lived 38,000 to 70,000 years ago was approximately one-third of that in contemporary modern humans. Together with analyses of mtDNA protein evolution, these data suggest that the long-term effective population size of Neandertals was smaller than that of modern humans and extant great apes.

Publications

  1. Targeted retrieval and analysis of five Neandertal mtDNA genomes.
    Cite this
    Briggs AW, Good JM, Green RE, Krause J, Maricic T, Stenzel U, Lalueza-Fox C, Rudan P, Brajkovic D, Kucan Z, Gusic I, Schmitz R, Doronichev VB, Golovanova LV, de la Rasilla M, Fortea J, Rosas A, Pääbo S, 2009-07-01 - Science (New York, N.Y.)

Credits

  1. Adrian W Briggs
    Developer

  2. Jeffrey M Good
    Developer

  3. Richard E Green
    Developer

  4. Johannes Krause
    Developer

  5. Tomislav Maricic
    Developer

  6. Udo Stenzel
    Developer

  7. Carles Lalueza-Fox
    Developer

  8. Pavao Rudan
    Developer

  9. Dejana Brajkovic
    Developer

  10. Željko Kucan
    Developer

  11. Ivan Gušic
    Developer

  12. Ralf Schmitz
    Developer

  13. Vladimir B Doronichev
    Developer

  14. Liubov V Golovanova
    Developer

  15. Marco de la Rasilla
    Developer

  16. Javier Fortea
    Developer

  17. Antonio Rosas
    Developer

  18. Svante Pääbo
    Investigator

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Summary
AccessionBT006553
Tool TypeApplication
Category
PlatformsLinux/Unix
TechnologiesC
User InterfaceTerminal Command Line
Download Count0
Submitted BySvante Pääbo