The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes.
Two African apes are the closest living relatives of humans: the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (Pan paniscus). Although they are similar in many respects, bonobos and chimpanzees differ strikingly in key social and sexual behaviours, and for some of these traits they show more similarity with humans than with each other. Here we report the sequencing and assembly of the bonobo genome to study its evolutionary relationship with the chimpanzee and human genomes. We find that more than three per cent of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo or the chimpanzee genome than these are to each other. These regions allow various aspects of the ancestry of the two ape species to be reconstructed. In addition, many of the regions that overlap genes may eventually help us understand the genetic basis of phenotypes that humans share with one of the two apes to the exclusion of the other.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. pruefer@eva.mpg.de
Kay
K
Prüfer
Kasper
K
Munch
Ines
I
Hellmann
Keiko
K
Akagi
Jason R
JR
Miller
Brian
B
Walenz
Sergey
S
Koren
Granger
G
Sutton
Chinnappa
C
Kodira
Roger
R
Winer
James R
JR
Knight
James C
JC
Mullikin
Stephen J
SJ
Meader
Chris P
CP
Ponting
Gerton
G
Lunter
Saneyuki
S
Higashino
Asger
A
Hobolth
Julien
J
Dutheil
Emre
E
Karakoç
Can
C
Alkan
Saba
S
Sajjadian
Claudia Rita
CR
Catacchio
Mario
M
Ventura
Tomas
T
Marques-Bonet
Evan E
EE
Eichler
Claudine
C
André
Rebeca
R
Atencia
Lawrence
L
Mugisha
Jörg
J
Junhold
Nick
N
Patterson
Michael
M
Siebauer
Jeffrey M
JM
Good
Anne
A
Fischer
Susan E
SE
Ptak
Michael
M
Lachmann
David E
DE
Symer
Thomas
T
Mailund
Mikkel H
MH
Schierup
Aida M
AM
Andrés
Janet
J
Kelso
Svante
S
Pääbo
D000818:Animals; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020440:Gene Duplication / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019974:Pan paniscus / Q000235:genetics*; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements