PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stéphane Peyrégne
AU  - Janet Kelso
AU  - Benjamin M. Peter
AU  - Svante Pääbo
TI  - The evolutionary history of human spindle genes includes back-and-forth gene flow with Neandertals
AID  - 10.1101/2021.11.29.470407
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.11.29.470407
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/30/2021.11.29.470407.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/30/2021.11.29.470407.full
AB  - Proteins associated with the spindle apparatus, a cytoskeletal structure that ensures the proper segregation of chromosomes during cell division, experienced an unusual number of amino acid substitutions in modern humans after the split from the ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans. Here, we analyze the history of these substitutions and show that some of the genes in which they occur may have been targets of positive selection. We also find that the two changes in the kinetochore scaffold 1 (KNL1) protein, previously believed to be specific to modern humans, were present in some Neandertals. We show that the KNL1 gene of these Neandertals shared a common ancestor with present-day Africans about 200,000 years ago due to gene flow from the ancestors (or relatives) of modern humans into Neandertals. Subsequently, some non-Africans inherited this modern human-like gene variant from Neandertals, but none inherited the ancestral gene variants. These results add to the growing evidence of early contacts between modern humans and archaic groups in Eurasia and illustrate the intricate relationships among these groups.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.