Denisovan Y Chromosomes Split from Neanderthal-Human Lineage 700,000 Years Ago
Scientists sequenced Y chromosomes from two Denisovans and three Neanderthals and found that Denisovan Y chromosomes split around 700,000 years ago from a lineage shared by Neanderthals and modern humans. Neanderthal and modern human Y chromosomes diverged from each other around 370,000 years ago. The phylogenetic relationships of archaic and modern human Y chromosomes differ from the population relationships inferred from autosomal genomes but mirror mitochondrial DNA phylogenies. This pattern indicates replacement of both mitochondrial and Y chromosomal gene pools in late Neanderthals. The replacement is plausible if the low effective population size of Neanderthals resulted in increased genetic load relative to modern humans. The study was published in Science in 2020 by Petr and colleagues.
The findings show that late Neanderthal populations experienced genetic turnover that replaced earlier Y chromosome and mitochondrial lineages, likely due to small population sizes increasing genetic load.
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