A Neanderthal woman from Chagyrskaya Cave
Neanderthals may have lived in very small groups, and genes expressed in
the basal ganglia of their brains may have changed

Date:
June 17, 2020
Source:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Summary:
Until now, the genomes of only two Neanderthals have been sequenced
in high quality: one from Vindjia Cave in modern-day Croatia and
one from Denisova Cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains. A research
team has now sequenced the genome of a third Neanderthal whose
remains were found - 106 kilometers away from the latter site -
in Chagyrskaya Cave.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Until now, the genomes of only two Neanderthals have been sequenced in
high quality: one from Vindjia Cave in modern-day Croatia and one from
Denisova Cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains. A research team led by Svante Pa"a"bo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in
Leipzig, Germany, has now sequenced the genome of a third Neanderthal
whose remains were found -- 106 kilometres away from the latter site --
in Chagyrskaya Cave.


==========================================================================
The researchers extracted the DNA from bone powder and sequenced
it to high quality. They estimate that the female Neanderthal lived 60,000-80,000 years ago. From the variation in the genome they estimate
that she and other Siberian Neanderthals lived in small groups of less
than 60 individuals. The researchers also show that the Chagyrskaya
Neanderthal was more closely related to the Croatian than to the other
Siberian Neanderthal which lived some 40,000 years before the Chagyrskaya Neanderthal. This shows that Neanderthal populations from the West at
some point replaced other Neanderthal populations in Siberia.

"We also found that genes expressed in the striatum of the brain during adolescence showed more changes that altered the resulting amino acid
when compared to other areas of the brain," says Fabrizio Mafessoni,
lead author of the study. The results suggest that the striatum --
a part of the brain which coordinates various aspects of cognition,
including planning, decision-making, motivation and reward perception --
may have played a unique role in Neanderthals.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Planck_Institute_for_Evolutionary_Anthropology. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Fabrizio Mafessoni, Steffi Grote, Cesare de Filippo, Viviane Slon,
Kseniya A. Kolobova, Bence Viola, Sergey V. Markin, Manjusha
Chintalapati, Stephane Peyre'gne, Laurits Skov, Pontus Skoglund,
Andrey I. Krivoshapkin, Anatoly P. Derevianko, Matthias Meyer, Janet
Kelso, Benjamin Peter, Kay Pru"fer, Svante Pa"a"bo. A high-coverage
Neandertal genome from Chagyrskaya Cave. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 2020; 202004944 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004944117 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200617121513.htm

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