title: Drafting human ancestry: what does the Neanderthal genome tell us about hominid evolution? Commentary on Green et al. (2010).
abstract: 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 Pääbo 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?
authors: Chair for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department of Biology (Area 2), The University of York, Wentworth Way, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Hofreiter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D051456:Gene Flow; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D049690:History, Ancient; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial