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2h ago

Science Study Finds Denisovan MUC19 Variant Concentrated in Indigenous American Ancestry

Authors infer a Denisovan-to-Neanderthal-to-human transfer, positing selection during the peopling of the Americas.

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Fernando Villanea draws a diagram representing the passing of archaic variants on to modern humans. This diagram is the basis for a computer simulation that was used to test various demographic histories of MUC19 in modern Americans.
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black-and-white image of a person handling a human jaw carefully while gloved

Overview

  • Researchers report that about one in three people of Mexican ancestry carry a Denisovan-derived MUC19 segment, compared with roughly 1% in Central Europeans.
  • The Denisovan segment appears flanked by Neanderthal DNA, indicating a multi-step introgression before entering modern human genomes.
  • Analysis of genomes from Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and Colombia found the variant at around 20% in Peruvians and near 1% in Colombians and Puerto Ricans.
  • MUC19 encodes a mucin involved in mucus production and immune protection, though its specific functions in humans remain incompletely understood.
  • The peer-reviewed Science paper frames the apparent frequency pattern as a hypothesis of adaptive introgression and outlines plans for functional and health-focused follow-up studies.