Researchers Sequence Neandertal Genome, Casting New Light on Human History and Identity

An international research team has sequenced the Neandertal genome, using pill-sized samples of bone powder from three Neandertal bones found in a cave in Croatia. The results appear in the 7 May issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS.

The researchers, led by Svante Pääbo of the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, compared the Neandertal genome with the genomes of five present-day humans from different parts of the world. The results reveal a variety of genes that are unique to humans, including a handful that spread rapidly among our species after humans and Neandertals split from a common ancestor. These findings thus offer a shortlist of genomic regions and genes that may be key to human identity...