Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have analyzed the distribution of the portion of DNA inherited from Neanderthals in the genomes of modern humans over the last 40,000 years. These statistical analyses revealed subtle variations in time and geographical space. This study, “Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry,” published in Science Advances, helps shed light on the common history of these two species.
Modern humans (Homo sapiens) from Africa began replacing Neanderthals 40,000 years ago in the western part of the Eurasian continent where Neanderthals had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. The replacement was not sudden but took place over several millennia which resulted in the integration of Neanderthal DNA into the H. sapiens genome.
“The worldwide expansion of modern humans started before the extinction of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). Both species coexisted and interbred, leading to slightly higher introgression in East Asians than in Europeans. This distinct ancestry level has been argued to result from selection, but range expansions of modern humans could provide an alternative explanation. This hypothesis would lead to spatial introgression gradients, increasing with distance from the expansion source,” write the researchers.
“We investigate the presence of Neanderthal introgression gradients after past human expansions by analyzing Eurasian paleogenomes. We show that the out-of-Africa expansion resulted in spatial gradients of Neanderthal ancestry that persisted through time. While keeping the same gradient orientation, the expansion of early Neolithic farmers contributed decisively to reducing the Neanderthal introgression in European populations compared to Asian populations. This is because Neolithic farmers carried less Neanderthal DNA than preceding Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. This study shows that inferences about past human population dynamics can be made from the spatiotemporal variation in archaic introgression.”
Genome sequencing and comparative analysis
Due to genome sequencing and comparative analysis, it’s established that Neanderthals and Sapiens interbred and that these encounters were sometimes fruitful, leading to the presence of about two percent of DNA of Neanderthal origin in present-day Eurasians. However, this percentage varies slightly between regions of Eurasia, since DNA from Neanderthals is somewhat more abundant in the genomes of Asian populations than in those of European populations.
One hypothesis to explain this difference is that natural selection would not have had the same effect on genes of Neanderthal origin in Asian and European populations. The team of Mathias Currat, PhD, senior lecturer in the department of genetics and evolution at the UNIGE Faculty of Science, is working on another hypothesis. His previous work, based on computer simulations, suggests that such differences could be explained by migratory flows: when a migrant population hybridizes with a local population, in their area of cohabitation, the proportion of DNA of the local population tends to increase with distance from the point of departure of the migrant population.
In the case of Sapiens and Neanderthals, the hypothesis is that the further one moves away from Africa, Homo sapiens’ point of origin, the greater the proportion of DNA from Neanderthal, a population mainly located in Europe. To test this hypothesis, the authors used a database made available by Harvard Medical School that includes more than 4,000 genomes from individuals who have lived in Eurasia over the past 40 millennia.
‘‘Our study is mainly focused on European populations since we are obviously dependent on the discovery of bones and the state of conservation of DNA. It turns out that archaeological excavations have been much more numerous in Europe, which greatly facilitates the study of the genomes of European populations,’’ explains Claudio Quilodrán, PhD, senior research and teaching assistant in the department of genetics and evolution at the UNIGE Faculty of Science, and co-first author of the study.
Paleolithic hunter-gatherers
Statistical analyses revealed that, in the period following the dispersal of Homo sapiens from Africa, the genomes of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe contained a slightly higher proportion of DNA of Neanderthal origin than the genomes of those who lived in Asia. This result is contrary to the current situation but in agreement with paleontological data, since the presence of Neanderthals was mainly reported in western Eurasia (no Neanderthal bones have been discovered further east than the Altai region of Siberia).
Subsequently, during the transition to the Neolithic, i.e., the transition from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the farmer lifestyle, 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, the study shows a decline in the proportion of DNA of Neanderthal origin in the genomes of European populations, resulting in a slightly lower percentage than that of Asian populations (as currently observed). This decrease coincided with the arrival in Europe of the first farmers from Anatolia (Turkey’s western peninsula) and the Aegean area, who themselves carried a lower proportion of DNA of Neanderthal origin than the inhabitants of Europe at the same time. By mixing with the populations of Europe, the genomes of farmers from Anatolia “diluted’’ Neanderthal DNA a little more.
The study shows that the analysis of ancient genomes, coupled with archaeological data, makes it possible to trace different stages in the history of hybridized species. ‘‘In addition, we are beginning to have enough data to describe more and more precisely the percentage of DNA of Neanderthal origin in the genome of Sapiens at certain periods of prehistory. Our work can therefore serve as a reference for future studies to more easily detect genetic profiles that deviate from the average and might therefore disclose an advantageous or disadvantageous effect,’’ notes Currat, last author of the study.
