Inconsistencies in Neanderthal genomic DNA sequences.
Inconsistencies in Neanderthal genomic DNA sequences.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pgen.0030175
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发表时间：
2007-10
期刊：
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Kim SK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wall JD;Kim SK
最近发表的两篇论文描述了从同一块尼安德特人化石中获得的核 DNA 序列。我们对这些研究数据的重新分析表明，它们彼此不一致，并指出其中一项研究的数据质量存在严重问题，可能是由于现代人类 DNA 污染物和/或高测序错误率所致。人类进化中持久的问题之一是化石群体（例如尼安德特人）与当今人类的关系。尼安德特人是当代人类的直系祖先，还是最终灭绝的进化支系？最近发表的两篇论文描述了化石骨骼中尼安德特人核 DNA 的测序，有望最终回答这个问题。然而，这两项研究对于尼安德特人的祖先角色得出了截然不同的结论。在本文中，我们重新分析了两项原始研究的数据。我们发现这两项研究彼此不一致，这意味着至少其中一项研究的数据可能是不正确的。罪魁祸首可能是现代人类 DNA 的污染，我们认为这损害了一项原始尼安德特人 DNA 研究的结果。
Two recently published papers describe nuclear DNA sequences that were obtained from the same Neanderthal fossil. Our reanalyses of the data from these studies show that they are not consistent with each other and point to serious problems with the data quality in one of the studies, possibly due to modern human DNA contaminants and/or a high rate of sequencing errors. One of the enduring questions in human evolution is the relationship of fossil groups, such as Neanderthals, with people alive today. Were Neanderthals direct ancestors of contemporary humans or an evolutionary side branch that eventually died out? Two recent papers describing the sequencing of Neanderthal nuclear DNA from fossil bone held promise for finally answering this question. However, the two studies came to very different conclusions regarding the ancestral role of Neanderthals. In this paper, we reanalyzed the data from the two original studies. We found that the two studies are inconsistent with each other, which implies that the data from at least one of the studies is probably incorrect. The likely culprit is contamination with modern human DNA, which we believe compromised the findings of one of the original Neanderthal DNA studies.