DNA sharing with Neandertal's

Posted by Nick Thompson on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/DNA-sharing-with-Neandertal-s-tp5612614.html

See, perhaps:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/04/AR2010100405700_2.html?waporef=obinsite&sid=ST2010100405975

“Subsequent research this year concluded that 1 to 4 percent of the modern human genome comes from Neanderthals, making the link tighter. And while the percentage may seem small, Riel-Salvatore says it has to be understood in context. Neanderthals, he said, probably never reached a total population greater than hundreds of thousands, while Homo sapiens came in far greater numbers.”

REALLY?  What’s the denominator?  Does “genome” refer to the “genes”, in which case the denominator consists of the 1 percent of the stuff on the chromosomes” that actually codes for a protein.  No wait a minute.  We share 99 percent of that with a chimpanzee, right?  So, the denominator would be the proportion of the genes (codons) that we DON’T share with chimpanzees, that we DO share with neandertals.  No. that’s not right either.  We presumably share almost a 100 percent of our genes with neandertals.  Can anybody help me figure this out?

Nick

 

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