Philippines People Hold a Denisovan Ancestry

Ancient hominins – Denisovans have interbred with modern humans in the distant past as per several lines of evidence. Among the modern humans, the Papuan Highlanders were long known to stand with the highest level of Denisovan ancestry. However, a study published in the journal Current Biology shows that Philippine Negrito ethnic group (known as the Ayta Magbukon) are found to have the highest level of Denisovan ancestry (amount of ancestral DNA) in the world as the present-day population.

The study team analyzed about 2.3 million genotypes from 118 ethnic groups of the Philippines including diverse self-identified Negrito populations. They also included high-coverage genomes of AustraloPapuans and Ayta Magbukon Negritos.

The Ancestral Migration

“We made this observation despite the fact that Philippine Negritos were recently admixed with East Asian-related groups—who carry little Denisovan ancestry, and which consequently diluted their levels of Denisovan ancestry. If we account for and masked away the East Asian-related ancestry in Philippine Negritos, their Denisovan ancestry can be up to 46 percent greater than that of Australians and Papuans,” says Maximilian Larena (@maxlarena) of Uppsala University.

It was also found additionally that multiple genetically related archaic species inhabited the Philippines before the arrival of modern humans.

The study thereby reveals a complex intertwined history of modern and archaic humans in the Asia-Pacific region, where distinct Islander Denisovan populations differentially admixed with incoming Australasians across multiple locations and at various points in time.

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“By sequencing more genomes in the future, we will have better resolution in addressing multiple questions, including how the inherited archaic tracts influenced our biology and how it contributed to our adaptation as a species,” says Larena.

Source-Medindia