Archaic Hominin Gene Flow into Africa Mostly Accurate
“Admixture has been a dominant force in shaping patterns of genetic variation in human populations (1). Comparisons of genome sequences from archaic hominins to those from present-day humans have documented multiple interbreeding events, including gene flow from Neanderthals into the ancestors of all non-Africans (2), from Denisovans into Oceanians (3) and eastern non-Africans (4, 5), as well as from early modern humans into the Neanderthals (6). However, the sparse fossil record and the difficulty in obtaining ancient DNA have made it challenging to dissect the contribution of archaic hominins to genetic diversity within Africa. While several studies have revealed contributions from deep lineages to the ancestry of present-day Africans (7–12), the nature of these contributions remains poorly understood.”
Summary
Genetic admixture is a pervasive force shaping human variation, and genome comparisons have confirmed Neanderthal introgression into all non‑African populations, Denisovan introgression into Oceanians and some eastern non‑African groups, and even gene flow from early modern humans into Neanderthals. Recent genomic analyses have identified modest archaic ancestry (around 2%) in various African populations such as Khoesan, Pygmy, and West Africans, but the precise origins and impact of these deep lineages remain unclear.
Sources 57 searched
- Human genetic admixture - PMC - NIH
One of the major insights from ... populations, creating populations with ancestors from multiple sources (Fig 1). These processes shape modern human genetic and phenotypic variation and may lead to differences in disease risk between populations [8–10]. Indeed, admixture ...
- Human genetic admixture through the lens of population genomics - PMC
Notably, genomic data have revealed the extent to which one such process—genetic admixture—has been ubiquitous throughout human history and can shape the distribution of human genetic diversity in ways different from those predicted by classic population genetic models [2–5]. Here we ...
- A genetic atlas of human admixture history - PMC - NIH
We identify events whose dates ... in eastern Europe, and European colonialism, as well as unrecorded events, revealing admixture to be an almost universal force shaping human populations....
- Recovering signals of ghost archaic introgression in African populations | Science Advances
The signals of introgression in the West African populations that we have analyzed raise questions regarding the identity of the archaic hominin and its interactions with the modern human populations in Africa. Analysis of the CSFS in the Luhya from Webuye, Kenya (LWK) also reveals signals of archaic introgression, although our interpretation is complicated by recent admixture in the LWK that involves populations related to western Africans and eastern African hunter-gatherers (section S8) (20).
- Genetic evidence for archaic admixture in Africa - PubMed
Extensive simulation results reject the null model of no admixture and allow us to infer that contemporary African populations contain a small proportion of genetic material (≈ 2%) that introgressed ≈ 35 kya from an archaic population that ...
- Searching for archaic contribution in Africa - PubMed
The sequencing of Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes has elucidated evidence of admixture between archaic and modern humans outside of Africa, but has not aided efforts in answering whether archaic admixture happened within Africa.
- ARTICLE Identification of African-Specific Admixture
populations is consistent with the expectation of null · models not containing archaic admixture, we simulated ... Material and Methods). We found that the number of · PGHs was 10–500 times smaller in the simulated datasets · than what was observed in the actual West African data,
This fact check is free and donation-based. $1 powers ~30 fact-checks.
