Reconstructing the Neanderthal Genome

Ancient DNA expert Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues are currently working on reconstructing the Neanderthal genome. The group extracted DNA from a Neanderthal bone and tried to determine whether the genome of this ancient creature could be sequenced. The researchers realized that the entire genetic blueprint is difficult to map due to confusing gaps in the long strand and potential contamination.

By a more in-depth analysis of the extracted DNA, Pääbo found the damage to genetic material is more likely to happen at certain junctures close to the end of the molecules and that at these particular locations Thymine (T) can be misread as Cytosine (C) and Adenine (A) as Guanine(G).

John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison says that the damage seems to be limited to these two kinds of changes, while other changes can be trusted as genuine differences between ancient sequences and living homologues.

Given this predictability, reconstructing the whole Neanderthal genome is now more realistic that ever. When this task is compete, inevitably the prospect of bringing back once extinct animals and peoples by placing ancient DNA in the embryos of modern relatives arises. Pääbo argues that such thing is not posible because one cannot clone individuals from DNA, but only from intact cells. Nevertheless Hawks says that such efforts are already underway and some people are trying to clone a mammoth.

According to Hawk the Neandertal genome is more likely to prove useful as a comparison with that of H. sapiens. “Every genetic difference between a Neandertal and a living person is a potential candidate for a gene or drug therapy,” Hawks says. “Every one of their genes worked in a humanlike creature. We know that none of them were lethal. So, for instance, functional differences between Neandertals and humans in muscle metabolism might lead to treatments for problems in humans like muscle wasting”, he concludes.

Some nice posts on the subject can be found on Anthropology.net and Eye on DNA.