Posted on 09/19/2019 10:42:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
Israeli team used DNA to design first Denosivan replica
Portrait of a female Denisovan teen. (photo credit: MAAYAN HAREL)
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Meet “Denise,” the first reconstructed anatomical profile of what, until now, were considered the mysterious Denisovans, a group of archaic humans.
She was revealed on Thursday by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The team who managed to recreate her profile say that long-term, their research shows possible strategies that could be taken for forensic applications.
Denisovans lived in Siberia and Eastern Asia before going extinct approximately 50,000 years ago, said Hebrew University researcher Prof. Liran Carmel, who led the study. But exactly what Denisovans might have looked like had previously been anyone’s guess. Since their original discovery in 2008, researchers had only three fossils to work with: a bone from the tip of “Denise’s” pinkie finger, a few teeth and a recently found lower jaw bone. The researchers were able to reconstruct the Denisovan profile over a three-year period by examining patterns of methylation in their ancient DNA.
3-D printed reconstruction of a female Denisovan (Credit: Maayan Harel)3-D printed reconstruction of a female Denisovan (Credit: Maayan Harel)
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DNA methylation is a process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule, thereby changing the activity of a segment of DNA. “Methylation provides ample information on gene transcription,” Carmel explained.
By studying Denisovan DNA methylation maps and comparing them to those of Neanderthals – another group of archaic humans who went extinct in Europe about 40,000 years ago – as well as ancient Homo sapiens, the team was able to understand what the differences might mean to Denisovan anatomical features, based on what is known about human disorders in which those genes lose their function.
“We got a prediction as to what skeletal parts are affected by differential regulation of each gene and in what direction that skeletal part would change – for example, a longer or shorter femur bone,” said Dr. David Gokhman, now a postdoc at Stanford, who also worked on the project.
Carmel said it is very difficult to get an anatomical profile from a DNA sequence: at most, scientists and forensics teams can tell basic details, such as whether the person has dark hair or skin. DNA methylation, however, allows researchers to make much more detailed anatomical predictions.
The team was able to prove about 85% accuracy of their model by using the same methodology to create anatomical models of Neanderthals and chimpanzees, which have known anatomical profiles.
“One of the most exciting moments happened a few weeks after we sent our paper to peer-review,” Carmel said. “Scientists had discovered a Denisovan jawbone. We quickly compared this bone to our predictions and found that it matched perfectly. Without even planning it, we received independent confirmation of our ability to reconstruct whole anatomical profiles using DNA that we extracted from a single fingertip.”
The researchers found that Denisovans have striking similar methylation patterns to humans. They also found that there are 56 anatomical features in which Denisovans differ from modern humans and/or Neanderthals, 34 of them in the skull.
Past research done outside of Hebrew University showed that up to 6% of present-day Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians contain Denisovan DNA. Further, Denisovan DNA likely contributed to modern Tibetans’ ability to live in high altitudes and to Inuits’ ability to withstand freezing temperatures.
Although Carmel said that “using our method directly for forensic application is currently not possible,” because it is designed to study differences outside the variability of modern humans and police would need to find features within that variability, “DNA methylation may provide much information that could help the police,” with forensic data, according to Carmel.
Nothing new under the sun!
The whole thing is stupid.....but I bet they collected a ton of Grant Money for the little stupid project.
So now the cops can use DNA at a crime scene to get m image of why the perp looked like, maybe.
What a BRAVE NEW WORLD we are entering. I am glad I am towards the end of my life because I suspect technology will be used to control citizens at some point (see China and what they are doing).
“So now the cops can use DNA at a crime scene to get m image of why the perp looked like, maybe.”
They have been doing this for about a decade in serious cases and often in rape cases.
Possible related search: taylor vance
The whole concept is based on the fantasy of a radical cleric without any common sense peer review. Even the Bible it’s self contradicts this notion and time line. It is 1600s mythology and superstition still held as tradition.
Actually, Neanderthals and Sapiens intermixed, as did Sapiens and Denisovans. The reality is that all modern humans are hybrids and contain admixture with at least 2 different members of Genus Homo. All Eurasians have Neanderthal-Sapien admixture, this would include Europeans, Asians and peoples in West-Asia (middle east) and into North Africa. Asians have admixture with not only Sapien-Neanderthal, but also Denisovan. Now if this 100,000 year old Denisovan was a fossil based in the Levant, this would suggest that people there also have Denisovan admixture. Every DNA study I have read till this point indicates only Asians have Denisovan
Peoples of sub-saharan Africa do not have Neanderthal or Denisovan admixture, but do have admixture from some other members of Genus homo. THus they to are hybrids, with Sapien and maybe Homo Rhodesiensis admixture.
So before DNA sequencing, the thought was that the Sapiens killed off the Neanderthals, etc. Now we know that was not the case, they just got absorbed, as did the Denisovans. Modern humans contain admixture, all of us are Homo Sapiens with admixture with other genus homo members, it is just some have admixture with Neanderthals, some don’t some have admixture with Neanderthals and Denisovans, some don’t etc. Some have admixture with a non H. Sapien African species (peoples south of the sahara) some don’t.
“high infant mortality”
A high adult mortality rate as well.
Oh man!...What is it, a new Thanksgiving Day parade baloon?
“The chart is flawed in that it assumes 12,000 years instead of 6,000. And doesn’t account for the flood 4,000 years ago that reduce the population to 8...”
This is so sad. Shame on the enablers.
Denise could easily have been Prom Queen at my high school.
If they went extinct, then how could they be our ancestors?
Now the only question is...
...would Laz hit that?
:>)
So THAT'S what happened at Chernobyl! Our understanding of this whole Carbon 14/nuclear half life thing was all wrong. Shouldn't you tell the NRC those reactors won't work and that fission is a myth?
I think I saw in an article that they’re already doing that -— and getting surprisingly accurate results.
Dibs!
wolves the size of grizzlies, the short-faced bear that was even larger, various predatory cats and the fact that any minor injury could turn fatal from infection. the infant mortality rate would have been very high.
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