Scientists Examine Neanderthal Y-Chromosome

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA—A team of researchers, including Fernando L. Mendez, G. David Poznik, and Carlos D. Bustamante of Stanford University, and Sergi Castellano of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, have examined DNA on the Y-chromosome of a Neanderthal male for the first time. According to a report in Science, DNA from this Neanderthal Y-chromosome, obtained from an individual who lived some 49,000 years ago at El Sidrón, Spain, was not passed on to modern humans when the two species interbred. (Modern Asians and Europeans have inherited one to three percent of their DNA from Neanderthals, but not on their Y-chromosomes.) The researchers found that the El Sidrón male had mutations in three immune genes that may have made it difficult for Neanderthal males to produce healthy male offspring with modern human females. To read more about what scientists are learning from Neanderthal DNA, go to "Neanderthal Genome Decoded."