ABSTRACT
Introduction When the ancestors of modern Eurasians migrated out of Africa and interbred with Eurasian archaic hominins, namely Neanderthals and Denisovans, DNA of archaic ancestry integrated into the genomes of anatomically modern humans. This process potentially accelerated adaptation to Eurasian environmental factors, including reduced ultra-violet radiation and an increased variation in seasonal dynamics. However, whether these groups differed substantially in circadian biology, and whether archaic introgression adaptively contributed to human chronotypes remains unknown.
Results Here we traced the evolution of chronotype based on genomes from archaic hominin and present-day humans. First, we inferred differences in circadian gene sequences, splicing, and regulation between archaic hominins and modern humans. We identified 28 circadian genes containing variants likely to alter splicing in archaics (e.g., CLOCK, PER2, RORB, RORC), and 16 circadian genes likely divergently regulated between present-day humans and archaic hominins, including RORA. These differences suggest the potential for introgression to modify circadian gene expression. Testing this hypothesis, we found that introgressed variants are enriched among eQTLs for circadian genes. Supporting the functional relevance of these regulatory effects, we found that many introgressed alleles have strong associations with chronotype. Strikingly, the strongest introgressed effects on chronotype increase morningness, which is consistent with adaptations to high latitude in other species. Finally, we identified 26 circadian loci with evidence of adaptive introgression, including PER2 and MYBBP1A.
Conclusions These findings identify differences in circadian gene regulation between modern humans and archaic hominins and support the contribution of introgression via coordinated effects on variation in human chronotype.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals created the potential for adaptive introgression as humans moved into new environments that had been populated by Neanderthals for hundreds of thousands of years. Here we discover substantial lineage-specific genetic differences in circadian genes and their regulatory elements between humans and Neanderthals. We then show that introgressed archaic alleles are enriched for effects on circadian gene regulation and consistently increase propensity for morningness in modern Europeans. These results substantially expand our understanding of how the genomes of humans and our closest relatives responded to living in environments with different light/dark cycles, and they demonstrate a coordinated contribution of archaic admixture to modern human chronotype in a direction that is consistent with adaptation to higher latitudes.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
