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Murray Cox, Professor at University of Auckland,NZ , is coming to Toulouse for 5 weeks in the frame of the "Visiting Scientist" Call. He will be welcome by François-Xavier Ricaut at EDB and Elodie Gaulin at LRSV.

Title: A Deep History of Archaic Ancestry in the Pacific

Summary: Genome sequences are known for two archaic hominins – Neanderthals and Denisovans – which interbred with anatomically modern humans as they dispersed out of Africa. By examining archaic sequences in hundreds of genomes spanning dozens of island groups across Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, large stretches of DNA were found that are inconsistent with a single introgressing Denisovan origin. Modern Papuans instead carry hundreds of gene variants from two deeply divergent Denisovan lineages, separated by over 350 thousand years. The geographical structure of these lineages hints at introgression from Denisovans that lived east of the Wallace line and suggests a complex history of contact with archaic humans among Papuan groups. This archaic inheritance has functional implications, with Denisovan gene variants modulating key immunity pathways in many people. This shows that modern humans not only mixed with multiple Denisovan populations, which had been geographically isolated from each other over deep evolutionary time, but that this genomic legacy continues to influence the lives of Pacific peoples even today.

For remote connections:

https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/97315699185?pwd=c3RLeGloTGw2M1FoeTZzTE1sSDNsZz09
ID de réunion : 973 1569 9185
Code secret : 2v8gGQ