'Mystery population' of human ancestors gave us 20% of our genes and may have boosted our brain function

[Kaz]

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By applying their new method to modern human DNA data published in the 1000 Genomes Project and the Human Genome Diversity Project, the researchers discovered that there were two main ancestral groups that split around 1.5 million years ago, which they called Population A and Population B.

Just after that split, Population A experienced a bottleneck when the population plummeted and likely lost a significant amount of genetic diversity. But Population A grew over time, and Neanderthals and Denisovans branched off from it.

Then, around 300,000 years ago, Population A mixed with Population B, the researchers found. Their genetic analysis suggests that 80% of the genome of all present-day humans comes from Population A, while 20% of our genome comes from Population B.

Some of the genes from Population B, "particularly those related to brain function and neural processing, may have played a crucial role in human evolution," study co-author Trevor Cousins, a postgraduate student in genetics at the University of Cambridge, said in the statement. In general, the genetic material from Population B reduced the ability of individuals to have children, Cousins told Live Science in an email, but "the genome is a complicated place, and regions outside of genes can still do important things."

The new model suggests that, around 300,000 years ago, Population A, which eventually gave rise to humans, had "deep structure," Cousins said, meaning it was formed from "two or more genetically distinct populations that mixed with each other."

 

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