據(jù)7月17日的《科學(xué)》雜志報(bào)道說,，一種對(duì)古代DNA序列測(cè)試的新的方法使得一個(gè)研究小組的成員能夠從6個(gè)尼安德特人的化石中獲得完整或近乎完整的線粒體DNA基因組。
對(duì)從西班牙到俄羅斯的整個(gè)尼安德特人的地理活動(dòng)范圍中的線粒體DNA多元性的新的分析表明，這種古代人類的基因多元性只是現(xiàn)代人類線粒體中所見到的多元性的1/3,。 Adrian Briggs及其同僚說,，這種低度的多元性表明,，存在于3萬8000年至7萬年前的尼安德特人的人數(shù)比現(xiàn)代人類或人猿數(shù)要少的多,，其女性可能不到3500個(gè)。
研究人員研發(fā)出一種他們稱之為引物延伸捕獲（PEC）的目標(biāo)測(cè)序方法,，這種方法可以從化石標(biāo)本中所獲的高度降解的DNA庫(kù)中分離出特別的DNA序列,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Science 17 July 2009:DOI: 10.1126/science.1174462
Targeted Retrieval and Analysis of Five Neandertal mtDNA Genomes
Adrian W. Briggs,1,* Jeffrey M. Good,1 Richard E. Green,1 Johannes Krause,1 Tomislav Maricic,1 Udo Stenzel,1 Carles Lalueza-Fox,2 Pavao Rudan,3 Dejana Brajkovi,4 eljko Kuan,3 Ivan Gui,3 Ralf Schmitz,5,6 Vladimir B. Doronichev,7 Liubov V. Golovanova,7 Marco de la Rasilla,8 Javier Fortea,8 Antonio Rosas,9 Svante P??bo1
Analysis of Neandertal DNA holds great potential for investigating the population history of this group of hominins, but progress has been limited due to the rarity of samples and damaged state of the DNA. We present a method of targeted ancient DNA sequence retrieval that greatly reduces sample destruction and sequencing demands and use this method to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes of five Neandertals from across their geographic range. We find that mtDNA genetic diversity in Neandertals that lived 38,000 to 70,000 years ago was approximately one-third of that in contemporary modern humans. Together with analyses of mtDNA protein evolution, these data suggest that the long-term effective population size of Neandertals was smaller than that of modern humans and extant great apes.
1 Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
2 Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
3 Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zrinski trg 11, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
4 Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Quaternary Paleontology and Geology, Ante Kovaia 5, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
5 Landschaftsverband Rheinland Landesmuseum, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.
6 Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Germany.
7 Laboratory of Prehistory, St. Petersburg, Russia.
8 área de Prehistoria Departamento de Historia Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
9 Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.
