Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

RNA viruses drove adaptive introgressions between Neanderthals and modern humans

View ORCID ProfileDavid Enard, View ORCID ProfileDmitri A Petrov
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/120477
David Enard
Department of Biology, Stanford University, United States.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David Enard
Dmitri A Petrov
Department of Biology, Stanford University, United States.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Dmitri A Petrov
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Neanderthals and modern humans came in contact with each other and interbred at least twice in the past 100,000 years. Such contact and interbreeding likely led both to the transmission of viruses novel to either species and to the exchange of adaptive alleles that provided resistance against the same viruses. Here, we show that viruses were responsible for dozens of adaptive introgressions between Neanderthals and modern humans. We identify RNA viruses—specifically lentiviruses and orthomyxoviruses—as likely drivers of introgressions from Neanderthals to Europeans. Our results imply that many introgressions between Neanderthals and modern humans were adaptive, and that host genetic variation can be used to understand ancient viral epidemics, potentially providing important insights regarding current and future epidemics.

One Sentence Summary Once out of Africa, modern humans inherited from Neanderthals dozens of genes already adapted against viruses present in their new environment.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted March 24, 2017.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
RNA viruses drove adaptive introgressions between Neanderthals and modern humans
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
RNA viruses drove adaptive introgressions between Neanderthals and modern humans
David Enard, Dmitri A Petrov
bioRxiv 120477; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/120477
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
RNA viruses drove adaptive introgressions between Neanderthals and modern humans
David Enard, Dmitri A Petrov
bioRxiv 120477; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/120477

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4087)
  • Biochemistry (8762)
  • Bioengineering (6479)
  • Bioinformatics (23340)
  • Biophysics (11750)
  • Cancer Biology (9149)
  • Cell Biology (13247)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7416)
  • Ecology (11369)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15087)
  • Genetics (10399)
  • Genomics (14009)
  • Immunology (9121)
  • Microbiology (22040)
  • Molecular Biology (8779)
  • Neuroscience (47366)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1420)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2482)
  • Physiology (3704)
  • Plant Biology (8050)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1431)
  • Synthetic Biology (2208)
  • Systems Biology (6016)
  • Zoology (1249)