Study suggests male Neanderthals more often mated with human females
DNA evidence points to a sex bias in ancient interbreeding patterns.
New genetic research suggests that interbreeding between Neanderthals and early modern humans occurred more often between male Neanderthals and female humans. The study, published in Science, offers a new explanation for why Neanderthal DNA is largely absent from the human X chromosome.
Researchers led by Alexander Platt and Sarah Tishkoff at the University of Pennsylvania compared DNA from Neanderthal remains (including the Altai, Chagyrskaya and Vindija individuals) with genetic data from sub-Saharan African populations that lack Neanderthal ancestry. They found that Neanderthal X chromosomes showed a 62% excess of modern human DNA, mirroring the scarcity of Neanderthal DNA on the human X chromosome.
Because females carry two X chromosomes and males only one, the direction of mating would shape how genes spread. If male Neanderthals partnered more frequently with female humans, fewer Neanderthal X chromosomes would enter the human gene pool. The findings suggest long-term mating patterns, rather than genetic incompatibility, may explain the so-called "Neanderthal deserts" in human DNA...
