News Release

DNA analysis of Gibraltar Neanderthals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

A study reports genetic analysis of Neanderthal specimens found more than a century ago. The remains of two Neanderthals from Gibraltar were excavated at Forbes' Quarry in 1848 and Devil's Tower in 1926. To investigate DNA preservation in the Neanderthal remains, Lukas Bokelmann, Svante Pääbo, Chris Stringer, and colleagues analyzed 36 mg of petrous bone powder from the Forbes' Quarry specimen and 20 mg of powder from the Devil's Tower specimen. By looking for evidence of uracils in the DNA sequences, the authors determined that some highly deaminated ancient DNA molecules were present in both Neanderthal specimens; uracil typically results from damage caused by deamination of the DNA base cytosine in ancient DNA. However, most sequences were not from genuine Neanderthal DNA, but resulted from contemporary human DNA contamination, showing that the specimens' DNA has not been well preserved. Therefore, the authors used a DNA preparation method that reduces modern contamination prior to sequencing to isolate the Neanderthal DNA component. The authors determined that the Devil's Tower individual was male and the Forbes' Quarry individual was female. The latter was genetically more similar to 60,000-120,000 year-old Neanderthal specimens in Europe and western Asia than to younger Neanderthal remains from Spain. The results suggest that it is possible to analyze ancient DNA in highly contaminated specimens, according to the authors.

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Article #19-03984: "A genetic analysis of the Gibraltar Neanderthals," by Lukas Bokelmann et al.

MEDIA CONTACT: Lukas Bokelmann, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, GERMANY; tel: +49-15774476040; email: lukas_bokelmann@eva.mpg.de; Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, GERMANY; email: paabo@eva.mpg.de; Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum, London, UNITED KINGDOM; email: c.stringer@nhm.ac.uk


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