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According to the Southeast University News Network on July 16, on July 12, Professor Li Liming of the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the School of Medicine of Southeast University/Key Laboratory of Developmental and Disease-Associated Genes of the Ministry of Education and Professor Joshua Akey of the Louis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University published a research article titled "Recurrent gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans over the past 200,000 years" in Science, reporting the latest progress in genetic exchange between Neanderthals and modern humans.

In recent years, research on ancient DNA has confirmed that there is genetic exchange between modern humans and the extinct ancient human Neanderthals. Most previous studies have focused on the genetic contribution of Neanderthals to modern humans, but lacked understanding of the genetic contribution of modern humans to Neanderthals.

Dongda News Network

This study used the genomes of 2,000 modern humans, three Neanderthals, and one Denisovan to map gene flow between different types of human populations over the past 200,000 years. By simulating the complex gene flow patterns between modern humans and Neanderthals, the study identified modern human DNA in the Neanderthal genome, estimated that the Neanderthal population size was about 20% lower than previously thought, and proposed the possibility of two gene flows from modern humans to Neanderthals. These results support the hypothesis that Neanderthals were assimilated by modern humans, that is, the Neanderthal population gradually decreased over time, and eventually gradually integrated into the gene pool of modern humans in the admixture with modern humans, who had a dominant population, about 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

The study reveals the complex history of genetic exchanges between early modern humans and Neanderthal groups, providing strong genetic evidence for the hypothesis that "Neanderthals were assimilated by modern humans."

Recently, the China Association for Science and Technology released major scientific issues for 2024, one of which is "Are the ancient humans discovered in China the ancestors of modern Chinese?"

Professor Li Hui from the Department of Human Genetics and Anthropology at the School of Life Sciences of Fudan University told Observer.com that from the perspective of biological anthropology, especially molecular anthropology, this question has a clear answer. It can be clearly said that modern Chinese people mainly originated in Africa, mainly referring to more than 97% of the components. From the perspective of natural science, this is a result confirmed with a confidence interval of more than 99.999999999%.

Li Hui mentioned that Paabo, who won the Nobel Prize in 2022, did relevant research. His conclusion proved that all humans in the world except Africa had genetic exchanges with Neanderthals, and that 2% of modern human genes are Neanderthal genes. So are Neanderthals our ancestors? Yes, one of them, but only a very, very weak 2%.

Early Homo sapiens in China belonged to the Denisovans. Did the Denisovans contribute to our genes? Li Hui said: "Unfortunately, when this wave of modern humans, which constitutes most of the gene pool of contemporary Chinese people, arrived in China, the Denisovans had already become extinct. But before us, there was another wave of modern humans who migrated to East Asia and exchanged genes with the Denisovans, and we exchanged with this group of modern humans, which is equivalent to us relying on a wave of 'relay batons' to merge some of the Denisovan genes. The proportion of this ratio is only 0.02% after testing."

Li Hui believes that based on these conclusions, it can indeed be confirmed that "incidental hybridization" exists, but the proportion is very low, so it is still "African origin, incidental hybridization."

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.