{"id":4913,"date":"2022-10-17T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4913"},"modified":"2022-10-05T10:01:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T10:01:27","slug":"nobel-prize-svante-paabos-ancient-dna-discoveries-offer-clues-as-to-what-makes-us-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/nobel-prize-svante-paabos-ancient-dna-discoveries-offer-clues-as-to-what-makes-us-human\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel prize: Svante P\u00e4\u00e4bo\u2019s ancient DNA discoveries offer clues as to what makes us\u00a0human"},"content":{"rendered":"\nLove Dal\u00e9n<\/a>, Stockholm University<\/a><\/em> and Anders G\u00f6therstr\u00f6m<\/a>, Stockholm University<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

The Nobel prize<\/a> in physiology or medicine for 2022 has been awarded to Svante P\u00e4\u00e4bo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, \u201cfor his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

In other words, P\u00e4\u00e4bo has been awarded the prestigious prize for having sequenced the genomes of our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, and for the fact that these discoveries have resulted in novel insights into human evolution. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

P\u00e4\u00e4bo is widely regarded as having pioneered the field of ancient DNA<\/a>, a research area dedicated to the recovery and analysis of DNA from historic and prehistoric remains.<\/p>\n\n

Although P\u00e4\u00e4bo did his PhD in medical science at Uppsala University in Sweden in the early 1980s<\/a>, he also studied Egyptology when he was at Uppsala. It was a logical next step that he took tools from molecular biology, garnered from his expertise in medical science, to better understand human prehistory. <\/p>\n\n

Extracting DNA from ancient bones<\/h2>\n\n

Beginning in the 1980s, P\u00e4\u00e4bo studied ancient DNA<\/a> in material ranging from mummified humans to extinct ground sloths<\/a>. This work was technically challenging<\/a> because ancient DNA is significantly degraded and can be contaminated.<\/p>\n\n

In the decade that followed, he developed a series of methods and guidelines<\/a> to recover and interpret authentic DNA and to minimise the risk of contamination from modern sources, especially from contemporary humans.<\/p>\n\n

In the early 1990s, there was significant excitement in the field about the possibility of recovering DNA from dinosaurs<\/a>. However, based on his knowledge of how DNA degrades over time<\/a>, P\u00e4\u00e4bo remained sceptical that DNA could survive such a long time. He was later proven right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many of his colleagues, it was clear that P\u00e4\u00e4bo\u2019s goal was always to recover Neanderthal DNA. But he took his time and carefully developed the methods for recovering and authenticating ancient DNA until these methods were mature enough to accomplish this objective.<\/p>\n\n

Finally, in 1997, P\u00e4\u00e4bo and his colleagues published the first Neanderthal DNA sequences<\/a>. In 2010 this was followed by the entire Neanderthal genome<\/a> (that is, all the genetic information stored in the DNA of one Neanderthal).<\/p>\n\n

Only a few years later, the group also published the genome from a previously unknown type of human, the Denisovans<\/a>, distantly related to Neanderthals. This sequencing was based on a 40,000-year-old fragment of bone discovered in the Denisova cave in Siberia.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A\n
\n P\u00e4\u00e4bo\u2019s discoveries show us that gene sequences from our extinct relatives influence the physiology of modern-day humans.<\/span>\n Gorodenkoff\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

By virtue of being able to compare these with human genomes, one of the most important findings of P\u00e4\u00e4bo\u2019s work has been that many modern humans carry a small proportion of DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans. Modern humans picked up these snippets of DNA through hybridisation, when modern and archaic humans mixed, as modern humans expanded across Eurasia during the last ice age.<\/p>\n\n

For example, particular Neanderthal genes affect how our immune system reacts to infections<\/a>, including COVID-19. The Denisovan version of a gene called EPAS1, meanwhile, helps people survive at high altitudes. It\u2019s common among modern-day Tibetans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, in comparing the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans with those of modern humans, P\u00e4\u00e4bo and his colleagues have been able to highlight genetic mutations that are not shared<\/a>. \nA large proportion of these are connected to how the brain develops.<\/p>\n\n

By revealing genetic differences that distinguish living humans from our extinct ancestors, P\u00e4\u00e4bo\u2019s influential discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Love Dal\u00e9n<\/a>, Professor in Evolutionary Genetics, Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm University<\/a><\/em> and Anders G\u00f6therstr\u00f6m<\/a>, Professor in Molecular Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Dal\u00e9n, Stockholm University and Anders G\u00f6therstr\u00f6m, Stockholm University The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for 2022…\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":4906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,17,11],"tags":[226,294,248,309,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-4913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-and-body","8":"category-math-and-the-sciences","9":"category-nature","10":"tag-denisovan","11":"tag-dna","12":"tag-neanderthal","13":"tag-nobel-prize","14":"tag-the-conversation","15":"cs-entry","16":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4914,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4913\/revisions\/4914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}