Abstract
AbstractThe recently published Altai fossil sequence from Denisova Cave was purported to be so different from anatomically modern humans, yet have the physiological landmarks of that species designation. When the published sequence was examined it was found that segments in the mtDNA hypervariable regions could be found to align with that of anatomically modern humans if one introduced an insertion at a position found in Neanderthals. Some other points of interest arise from a reconsideration of the sequences for other published samples and Neanderthals from the same perspective.
Highlights
The recent publication of a mtDNA sequence by Krause, et al(2010) produced a proposal by the authors that the differences between this sequence, that of modern humans and Neandertal sequences indicated that the Denisova individual was probably derived from an unknown hominid population that shared its last common ancestor with AMH and Neandertals before 1.0 mya
If one adds the Denisova Cave sequence to our alignment and begin the reading from the Neandertal insert we find that the Denisova sequence fits the reference sequence of Anderson and that used by Krings (1997) with only a few bp variations (18)
This changes the appearance of the Denisova sequence and makes it appear to reflect a combination of Neandertal sequences and AMH sequences consistent with the recent analysis of the Neandertal genome by Green, et al, (2010)
Summary
The recent publication of a mtDNA sequence by Krause, et al(2010) produced a proposal by the authors that the differences between this sequence, that of modern humans and Neandertal sequences indicated that the Denisova individual was probably derived from an unknown hominid population that shared its last common ancestor with AMH and Neandertals before 1.0 mya. While there is significant evidence of degradation present in the reported sequence which parallels degraded mtDNA as Caldararo and Gabow (2000) argued in a paper in Ancient Biomolecules, and Caldararo (2004) extended in a later analysis, some sequences do align with published samples.
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