Anthropology 1020 Spring 2018

Denisovan: our newest cousin

Analysis of Scientific Research

Jeremy Lerwill
4-9-2018
New discoveries in human evolution are frequently being unearthed, due to a recent find there is

now a new archaic hominin to be added to history and our text books, the Denisovans. In 2008 a

molar and small piece of bone from the pinky finger were found in Denisova Cave in southern

Siberia. DNA was extracted from the finger bone and a genome was sequenced for this new

hominin. Interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis was already known

and makes up 2-4% of the modern human genome. A team of scientists, led by University of

Washington biostatistician Sharon R. Browning wanted to see how much of the Denisovans

DNA was in the modern human genome. She hypothesized that as ancestral humans migrated

eastward (from Africa), they came across two different Denisovan populations. Browning said,

“We’re looking for segments of DNA in an individual that look quite different from the rest of

the variation in the population…. The geography is quite suggestive…. Maybe it was down in

the southeast corner of Asia…. It could possibly have been on an island en route to Papua New

Guinea, but we clearly don’t know.” (Guarino, 2018)

Browning and her colleagues, looking for the archaic DNA, examined 5,639 genomes from

different populations of modern humans from Europe, Asia and Oceania. Their analysis revealed

some of the genomes from Japan and China had closer matches to Denisovan than the previously

known Melanesians and that some of the proportions of Denisovan DNA was less in East

Asians. “In this new work with East Asians, we find a second set of Denisovan ancestry that we

do not find in the South Asians and Papuans," Browning says. (Williams, 2018) Up to 4-6% of

modern human genetic material in these areas come from Denisovan DNA, more than the

previous Melanesians, opening a new door to research and study to understand the human

evolution from these regions.

Browning’s hypothesis was supported through her team’s research and its results; thus, they plan

on studying more Asian populations. They also want to include more populations from the world

such as Native Americans and Africans. "We want to look throughout the world to see if we can

find evidence of interbreeding with other archaic humans," says Browning. "There are signs that

intermixing with archaic humans was occurring in Africa but given the warmer climate no one

has yet found African archaic human fossils with sufficient DNA for sequencing."

(eurekalert.org, 2018)

Browning summarizes in her discussion the process of comparing the Denisovan DNA to

multiple genome projects; such as, the non-African populations from the 1000 Genomes project,

Papuans from the SGDP and individuals from the UK10K project. Two waves of admixture from

the Denisovan’s was found and in contrast two waves of Neanderthal’s were not found in the

modern genome.

The seven steps of the scientific method were used in her research and publications. In her first

step she wanted to know if there was interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Denisovan people

just as there was with Neanderthal’s. Second: she researched previous genome projects to see if

it was possible if there were populations that interbred. Third: she hypothesized that there was

interbreeding in Europe, Asia and Oceania. Fourth: she compared the new DNA to 5,639 known

genomes from those regions using previously studied and published genome sequences. Fifth:

she was able to observe from the data compared that there were two distinct interbreeding waves

in the Asian and Oceania populations. Sixth: the results were verified by fellow scientists and

institutions. Seventh: she shared her findings with peers in October of 2017 and after peer review

she published her results in March of 2018. (Browning, 2018)

Due to the discovery ten years ago in Siberia, just a little pinky, we now know a new part of our

ancestral past. A small discover such as this can and will change our history and scientific

understandings. It gives us an answer to 4-6% of our DNA make up that we didn’t know was

there, nearly twice as much as the Neanderthal’s influence we already recognized. This could

fuel further explorations to find other missing pieces in our genetics and is a wonderful thing to

behold.

References
Browning, S. R. (2018, March 15). http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30175-2.
Retrieved from http://www.cell.com.
eurekalert.org. (2018, March 15). www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-03/cp-mhi030818.php.
Retrieved from www.eurekalert.org.
Guarino, B. (2018, Mach 15). www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2018/03/15/humans-bred-with-this-mysterious-species-more-than-once-new-
study-shows/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.03a618218267. Retrieved from
www.washingtonpost.com.
Williams, S. (2018, March 16). www.the-
scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/52078/title/Homo-Sapiens-Interbred-With-
Denisovans-From-Two-Different-Populations/. Retrieved from www.the-scientist.com.