The evolutionary history of Neanderthal and Denisovan Y chromosomes

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abb6460
• Publication Date: 2021-03-22T19:21:06Z
• Authors: Martin Petr; Mateja Hajdinjak; Qiaomei Fu; Elena Essel; Hélène Rougier; Isabelle Crevecoeur; Patrick Semal; Liubov V. Golovanova; Vladimir B. Doron...; Carles Lalueza-Fox; Marco de la Rasilla; Antonio Rosas; Michael V. Shunkov; Maxim B. Kozlikin; Anatoli P. Derevi...; Benjamin Vernot; Matthias Meyer; Janet Kelso
• Keywords: [SDE] Environmental Sciences; Male; 0301 basic medicine; 570; 0303 health sciences; Chromosomes, Human, Y; DNA, Mitochondrial; [SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences; Evolution, Molecular; 03 medical and health sciences; Y Chromosome; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Animals; Humans; [SHS] Humanities and Social Sciences; DNA, Ancient; Life History Traits; Phylogeny; Neanderthals

Y chromosome evolution in Neanderthals

The genomes of archaic hominins have been sequenced and compared with that of modern humans. However, most archaic individuals with high-quality sequences available have been female. Petr et al. performed targeted sequencing of the paternally inherited Y chromosomes from three Neanderthals and two Denisovans (see the Perspective by Schierup). Comparisons with available archaic and diverse modern human Y chromosomes indicated that, similar to the maternally inherited mitochondria, the human and Neanderthal Y chromosomes were more closely related to each other compared with the Denisovan Y chromosome. This result supports the conclusion that interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals and selection replaced the more ancient Denisovian-like Y chromosome and mitochondria in Neanderthals.

Science , this issue p. 1653 ; see also p. 1565