Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
  
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2-Year Neanderthal Genome Project Launches
« on: 2006-07-20 14:44:56 » |
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[Blunderov] <massive digression> This report from ABC News has as an endpiece the trenchant "Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."
On the other hand, the page also offers the facility to e-mail the article, apparently with no restriction. Turns out I would have had to e-mail it to myself and then forward to to Virus. I assume forwarding it to Virus would be legal because the article would have, at this stage, shape-shifted into an e-mail.
Long story short; it seems more rational to just post it straight away and skip the middleman in the interests of economy. But if anybody asks you where you got this...</massive digression>
Best Regards.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2216434&page=1
ABC News
2-Year Neanderthal Genome Project LaunchesScientists Launch 2-Year Project to Map Neanderthal's Genome, Learn About Brain Development
The undated picture released by the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig shows the 3D reconstruction of a Neandertal skull. Together with scientists from the 454 Life Sciences Corporation, Branford, USA, the institute wants to complete a first draft of the Neandertal genome within the next two years. (AP Photo/Max-Planck-Institute)
BERLIN Jul 20, 2006 (AP)— U.S. and German scientists on Thursday launched a two-year project to decipher Neanderthals' genetic code, a feat that they hope will help deepen understanding of how modern humans' brains evolved.
Neanderthals were a species of the Homo genus who lived in Europe and western Asia from more than 200,000 years ago to as little as roughly 30,000 years ago.
Scientists from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology are teaming up with Branford, Connecticut-based 454 Life Sciences Corp. to map the Neanderthal genome, or DNA code.
"The Neanderthal is the closest relative to the modern human, and we believe that by sequencing the Neanderthal we can learn a lot," said Michael Egholm, the vice president of molecular biology at 454, which will use its high-speed sequencing technology in the project.
There are no firm answers yet about how humans picked up key traits such as walking upright and developing complex language. Neanderthals are believed to have been relatively sophisticated, but lacking in humans' higher reasoning functions.
The Neanderthal project follows scientists' achievement last year in deciphering the DNA of the chimpanzee, our closest living relative, which produced a long list of DNA differences with the chimp and some hints about which ones might be crucial.
The chimp genome "led to literally too many questions, there were 35 million differences between us and chimpanzees that's too much to figure out," Jonathan Rothberg, 454's chairman, said in a telephone interview.
"By having Neanderthal, we'll really be able to home in on the small percentage of differences that gave us higher cognitive abilities," he said. "Neanderthal is going to open the box. It's not going to answer the question, but it's going to tell where to look to understand all of those higher cognitive functions."
Over two years, the scientists aim to reconstruct a draft of the 3 billion building blocks of the Neanderthal genome working with fossil samples from several individuals.
They face the complication of working with 40,000-year-old samples, and of filtering out microbial DNA that contaminated them after death.
About 5 percent of the DNA in the samples is actually Neanderthal DNA, Egholm estimated, but he and Rothberg said pilot experiments had convinced them that the decoding was feasible.
At the Max Planck Institute, the project also involves Svante Paabo, who nine years ago participated in a pioneering, though smaller-scale, DNA test on a Neanderthal sample.
That study suggested that Neanderthals and humans split from a common ancestor a half-million years ago and backed the theory that Neanderthals were an evolutionary dead end.
The new project will help in understanding how characteristics unique to humans evolved and "will also identify those genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world," Paabo said in a statement Thursday.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2006 ABCNews Internet Ventures
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