German anthropologists have decoded the entire genome sequence of a Denisovan, representative of the extinct Asian group related to Neanderthals, from a finger bone fossil, a study reveals. The team from The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthrop-ology, Germany, has now developed sensitive novel techniques which have allowed them to sequence every position in the Denisovan genome about 30 times over, using DNA extracted from less than 10 milligrams of the finger bone. This level of resolution was sufficient to establish the relationship of Denisovans to Neanderthals and present-day humans, but often made it impossible for researchers to study the evolution of specific parts of the genome.
The now-completed version of the genome allows even the small differences between the copies of genes, that this individual inherited from its mother and father to be distinguished, a university statement said. The finger bone was discovered by Anatoly Derevianko and Michail Shunkov, professors at the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2008 during their excavations at Denisova Cave, in southern Siberia. In 2010, Svante Pääbo and colleagues from Max Planck presented a draft version of the genome from the finger bone fragment.