"Tiny genetic variations between humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans might not be all they were cracked up to be."
"What made humans behave differently to their closest relatives? Researchers have long sought an answer in a handful of genetic differences between Homo sapiens and our close relatives the Neanderthals and Denisovans - but a new study suggests that some of those differences might not be so notable after all."
Small genetic differences previously highlighted between Homo sapiens and the archaic hominins Neanderthals and Denisovans may not uniquely define human traits. Efforts to link a handful of modern-human-specific variants to behavioral or cognitive differences can overstate their significance. Comparative analyses reveal that some variants once considered distinctive occur in broader patterns or lack clear functional effects. Assigning complex behavioral outcomes to a few nucleotide changes is premature. Broader genetic context, regulatory interactions and environmental factors require consideration before attributing causal roles to tiny sequence differences.
Read at Nature
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]