Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The human genome project had a significant role to play biotechnology with the development of new therapies. Insights gained from genomics continue to provide vital data for application in new therapies and industrial uses. Ancient DNA applications, like samples of human remains approximately 45,000 years old, has given new insights to previously unknown aspects of human evolution.
Co-leader of a new study Dr Yassine Souilmi, Group Leader at the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, stated that it was largely assumed the genetics of our human ancestors had no alterations due to atmospheric pressures similar to other animals, due to our enhanced communication skills and capability to apply tool usage. He further explained that, by contrasting modern genomes with ancient DNA, they found over 50 cases of an initially rare beneficial genetic variant becoming widespread across every member of ancient human groups.
Dr Souilmi stated that in comparison to a lot of other species, evidence for this type of adaptive genetic change has not been consistent in humans. “This discovery consequently challenges the prevailing view of human adaptation, and gives us a new and exciting insight into how humans have adapted to the novel environmental pressures they encountered as we spread across the planet,” he said.
Co-lead author Dr Ray Tobler, who is an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide, stated that evaluating ancient DNA has been significant in opening up the secrets of human evolution and further explained that they feel ancient mixing events between human groups might have hidden signs of genetic variations in modern human genomes. Dr Tobler also stated that they examined DNA from over 1,000 ancient genomes, the oldest that was approximately 45,000 years old, to determine if certain types of genetic adaptation had been more frequent in our history than studies of modern genomes have indicated.
