Does anyone have neanderthal dna

But humans and Neanderthals mated more than 40, years ago! That is a big difference. The percentage of Neanderthal DNA should be much, much lower. To understand why we have not lost all Neanderthal DNA, we need to learn about another concept: adaptive introgression. To understand adaptive introgression, we will travel to North America, where packs of wolves roam the forests.

If you watch nature documentaries, you might have noticed that these wolves mostly have gray fur. But perceptive scientists observed that there were some wolves with darker fur.

Where did that dark fur come from? The scientists studied the DNA of these wolves and discovered that the dark fur was caused by a particular variant of a gene. Surprisingly, wolves normally do not have this variant of the gene.

But dogs do! Further analyses revealed that, in the past, dogs and wolves had pups together. The mixing of these two species led to the exchange of DNA, including the variant gene that gave wolves darker fur [ 2 ]. Because of this darker shade, these wolves were better camouflaged in the forest, making them better hunters.

The exchange of DNA—or introgression—helped the wolves adapt to their environment. That is why this process is called adaptive introgression. Individuals with darker fur survived better than their gray friends and had more pups.

These pups looked like their parents and also had darker fur. Over time, the genetic variant for darker fur became common in the population Figure 2. Evolutionary biologists say that the dark fur trait was subject to natural selection.

If we return to the analogy of mixing two colors of paint, you can compare a beneficial genetic variant like dark fur with a hard blob of yellow paint. No matter how much red paint you add, the yellow blob will not mix, it keeps floating around in the red mixture. The same adaptive introgression happened with Neanderthal DNA.

Some genes turned out to be helpful for humans and did not disappear from the human DNA. What adaptations did these Neanderthal genes provide us?

Scientists are making a catalog of all the beneficial genes we received from Neanderthals [ 3 , 4 ]. Let us have a look at some of these genes.

The gene microcephalin MCPH1 , for example, ensures that the development of the brain goes according to plan. Perhaps this Neanderthal gene made humans smarter and better able to survive in unexplored territories.

Other Neanderthal genes, such as olfactory receptor 12D3 OR12D3 , are important for the digestion of food. Humans that arrived in Europe were confronted with all types of new food.

Article 27 OCT Research Highlight 04 NOV Research Highlight 29 OCT University of Vienna. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF. References 1. Article Google Scholar 2.

Article Google Scholar 3. Close banner Close. Email address Sign up. Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. But this study, along with other recent genetic analyses, point to evermore mixing and migrations, calling for continued reevaluation of our tales of the past.

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