Analysis of Human Sequence Data Reveals Two Pulses of Archaic Denisovan Admixture
Sharon R. Browning5, Brian L. Browning, Ying Zhou, Serena Tucci, Joshua M. Akey
5Lead Contact
Publication stage: In Press Corrected Proof
Article Info
Publication History
Published: March 15, 2018 Accepted: February 12, 2018
Received in revised form: November 21, 2017 Received: October 4, 2017
Highlights
•Asian genomes carry introgressed DNA from Denisovans and Neanderthals
•East Asians show evidence of introgression from two distinct Denisovan populations
•South Asians and Oceanians carry introgression from one Denisovan population
Summary
Anatomically modern humans interbred with Neanderthals and with a related archaic population known as Denisovans. Genomes of several Neanderthals and one Denisovan have been sequenced, and these reference genomes have been used to detect introgressed genetic material in present-day human genomes. Segments of introgression also can be detected without use of reference genomes, and doing so can be advantageous for finding introgressed segments that are less closely related to the sequenced archaic genomes. We apply a new reference-free method for detecting archaic introgression to 5,639 whole-genome sequences from Eurasia and Oceania. We find Denisovan ancestry in populations from East and South Asia and Papuans. Denisovan ancestry comprises two components with differing similarity to the sequenced Altai Denisovan individual. This indicates that at least two distinct instances of Denisovan admixture into modern humans occurred, involving Denisovan populations that had different levels of relatedness to the sequenced Altai Denisovan.
