German researchers publish full Neanderthal genome

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, has completed the genome sequence of a Neandertal and makes the entire sequence available to the scientific community today.

In 2010, Dr. Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented the first draft version of the Neandertal genome from data collected from three bones found in a cave in Croatia. They have now used a toe bone excavated in 2010 in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia to generate a high-quality genome from a single Neandertal individual.

The Leipzig team has used sensitive techniques they have developed over the past two years to sequence every position in the genome about 50 times over, using DNA extracted from 0.038 grams of the toe bone. The analysis of the genome together with partial genome sequences from other Neandertals, and the genome from a small finger bone discovered in the same cave, shows that the individual is closely related to other Neandertals in Europe and western Russia.

In the 2010 draft version of the Neandertal genome, each position was determined, on average, once. In the now-completed version of the genome every position was determined on average 50 times over. "The genome is of very high quality", says Dr. Kay Prüfer, who coordinates the analyses of the genome in Leipzig. "It matches the quality of the Denisovan genome, presented last year, and is as good as or even better than the multiple present-day human genomes available to date."