Post by jonsdigs on Nov 15, 2006 21:12:42 GMT -5
Scientists decode Neanderthal genes
Material from 38,000-year-old bone fragment being analyzed
By Ker Than
MSNBC
Updated: 4:45 p.m. CT Nov 15, 2006
Humans and their close Neanderthal relatives began diverging from a common ancestor about 700,000 years ago, and the two groups split permanently some 300,000 years later, according to two of the most detailed analyses of Neanderthal DNA to date.
Using different techniques, two teams of scientists separately sequenced large chunks of DNA extracted from the femur of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal specimen found in a cave 26 years ago in Croatia. One team sequenced more than 1 million base pairs of the 3.3-billion-pair genome, and the other analyzed 65,000 pairs.
The achievements could help shed light on the evolution of our own species, and it paves the way for building a complete library of the Neanderthal genome within a few years, the scientists say.
Full Article
Material from 38,000-year-old bone fragment being analyzed
By Ker Than
MSNBC
Updated: 4:45 p.m. CT Nov 15, 2006
Humans and their close Neanderthal relatives began diverging from a common ancestor about 700,000 years ago, and the two groups split permanently some 300,000 years later, according to two of the most detailed analyses of Neanderthal DNA to date.
Using different techniques, two teams of scientists separately sequenced large chunks of DNA extracted from the femur of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal specimen found in a cave 26 years ago in Croatia. One team sequenced more than 1 million base pairs of the 3.3-billion-pair genome, and the other analyzed 65,000 pairs.
The achievements could help shed light on the evolution of our own species, and it paves the way for building a complete library of the Neanderthal genome within a few years, the scientists say.
Full Article