Svante Pääbo’s ancient DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us human
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for 2022 has been awarded to Svante Pääbo, whose discoveries have been pivotal to the way we understand our evolutionary history. Love Dalén and Anders Götherström discusses the importance of his finding in a new article in The Conversation.
The article is published in The Conversation on 3 October and is written by Love Dalén, Professor in Evolutionary Genetics, Centre for Palaeogenetics, and Anders Götherström, Professor in Molecular Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, both at Stockholm University.
They write:
“Finally, in 1997, Pääbo and his colleagues published the first Neanderthal DNA sequences. In 2010 this was followed by the entire Neanderthal genome (that is, all the genetic information stored in the DNA of one Neanderthal).
Only a few years later, the group also published the genome from a previously unknown type of human, the Denisovans, distantly related to Neanderthals. This sequencing was based on a 40,000-year-old fragment of bone discovered in the Denisova cave in Siberia.
By virtue of being able to compare these with human genomes, one of the most important findings of Pääbo’s work has been that many modern humans carry a small proportion of DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans. Modern humans picked up these snippets of DNA through hybridisation, when modern and archaic humans mixed, as modern humans expanded across Eurasia during the last ice age.
For example, particular Neanderthal genes affect how our immune system reacts to infections, including COVID-19. The Denisovan version of a gene called EPAS1, meanwhile, helps people survive at high altitudes. It’s common among modern-day Tibetans.”
Read the article published in The Conversation.
More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University.
Last updated: October 4, 2022
Source: Communications Office