Using the Neandertal genome to study the evolution of small insertions and deletions in modern humans.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Small insertions and deletions occur in humans at a lower rate compared to nucleotide changes, but evolve under more constraint than nucleotide changes. While the evolution of insertions and deletions have been investigated using ape outgroups, the now available genome of a Neandertal can shed light on the evolution of indels in more recent times.

Results

We used the Neandertal genome together with several primate outgroup genomes to differentiate between human insertion/deletion changes that likely occurred before the split from Neandertals and those that likely arose later. Changes that pre-date the split from Neandertals show a smaller proportion of deletions than those that occurred later. The presence of a Neandertal-shared allele in Europeans or Asians but t

SUBMITTER: Chintalapati M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5543596 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature