The Viruses That Neanderthals Spread to Humans
The two ancient hominin groups swapped genes, diseases, and genes that protect against diseases, according to a new study.
When modern humans left Africa for Europe tens of thousands of years ago, they met Neanderthals and had sex with them. The evidence of those encounters remains inside most of us today; 2 to 3 percent of the DNA of non-African humans comes from Neanderthals.
The bits of Neanderthal DNA that have persisted are not entirely random. Scientists have wondered whether they offered some advantage in the early days of humanity, as they cluster, curiously, around genes related to skin, hair, and the immune system. A goes one an evolutionary biologist now at the University of Arizona and an author of the paper.
