Archaic Humans Passed Adaptive Gene Duplications to Melanesians
Denisovans and Neanderthals contributed large copy number variants to modern Melanesian genomes that show signs of positive selection, according to a study published in Science by researchers at the University of Washington and collaborators. The team used long-read sequencing to reconstruct two adaptive variants on chromosomes 16p11.2 and 8p21.3. Both encode genes that are absent from most human populations. One variant came from Denisovans, the other from Neanderthals. The researchers found that stratified copy number variants are significantly associated with signatures of positive selection in Melanesians. Copy number variants face stronger selective pressure than single-nucleotide variants, but their roles in archaic introgression and adaptation had not been systematically investigated before this work.
Large copy number variants from archaic hominins may represent an understudied source of genetic variation that helped modern human populations adapt to local environments.
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