A highly divergent mtDNA sequence in a Neandertal individual from Italy.

Caramelli, David; Lalueza Fox, C; Condemi, S; Longo, L; Milani, L; Manfredini, A; De Saint Pierre, M; Adoni, F; Lari, Martina; Giunti, P; Ricci, S; Casoli, A; Calafell, F; Mallegni, F; Bertranpetit, J; Stanyon, Roscoe Robert; Bertorelle, G; Barbujani, G.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.043

Neandertals are documented in Europe and Western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from Neandertal samples [1,2] and other analyses [3,4,5] appear incompatible with the hypothesis that Neandertals are direct ancestors of modern Europeans [6,7]. However, there are broad geographic gaps in the sampling of Neandertal DNA diversity. Here, we describe the sequence of the first mitochondrial hypervariable region (HVR1) in a new specimen from Monti Lessini (MLS) in Northern Italy. This sequence contains several previously unidentified nucleotide substitutions and comparison to five other complete HVR1 sequences reveals a previously undetected amount of genetic variation among Neandertals.

A highly divergent mtDNA sequence in a Neandertal individual from Italy / D. CARAMELLI, LALUEZA-FOX C, CONDEMI S, LONGO L, MILANI L, MANFREDINI A, DE SAINT PIERRE M, ADONI F, LARI M, GIUNTI P, RICCI S, CASOLI A, CALAFELL F, MALLEGNI F, BERTRANPETIT J, STANYON R, BERTORELLE G, BARBUJANI G. - In: CURRENT BIOLOGY. - ISSN 0960-9822. - STAMPA. - 16:(2006), pp. 630-632. [10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.043]