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The most comprehensive catalogue of great - aper genome diversity to escort offers brainstorm into primate phylogenesis , revealingchimpanzeeshave a much more complex familial history than humans .
In a new report , researchers sequenced a total of 79 great ape , including Pan troglodytes , bonobos , easterly and western gorillas , orangutan and homo , as well as seven anthropoid subspecies . The animals were wild- and captive - assume individuals from populations in Africa and Southeast Asia .
Researchers have sequenced the first full set of great ape genomes. Shown here: chimpanzees and gorillas.
Much attending has been focalise on examine the diversity among human genome , enjoin study investigator Tomas Marques - Bonet , a geneticist at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva in Spain . " If we desire to understand the genetic diversity of humans , we want to measure the genetic diversity of our nearest relatives , " Marques - Bonet said . [ unravel the Human Genome : 6 Molecular Milestones ]
As part of the study , Marques - Bonet and his colleagues were front for genetic markers correspond to change in a unmarried letter in the familial computer code that define a subspecies . The investigator identified millions of such markers , which are important for conservation efforts . For illustration , these markers allow people who manage raging - ape populations to name different sort of copycat . Most of these animate being are get from illegal business deal , so scientists do n’t make out how they ’re related , Marques - Bonet severalise LiveScience .
astonishingly , Marques - Bonet said , the inherited history of chimpanzees turned out to be much more complex than that of human beings . liken with Pan troglodytes , " it look like our [ humans ' ] account has been really simple , " Marques - Bonet said . Human population encounter a bottleneck when they will Africa , and have since expanded to colonize the whole planet . By contrast , chimp universe have undergone at least two to three bottleneck and expansion , Marques - Bonet said .
The findings , the researcher said , also settle a hot debate over the relationships among the four chimp subspecies — Central chimpanzee , Western Pan troglodytes , Nigeria - Cameroon chimpanzee and Eastern Pan troglodytes . " Now , we have the full genome for all four , " Marques - Bonet say . Rather than expose four groups , the sequences show that all chimps divide into two major groups : a Nigeria - Cameroon / westerly population and a Central / Eastern population .
The new finding do n’t exchange humans ' position in the great - ape evolutionary tree . Pan troglodytes and pygmy chimpanzee are stillhumans ' closest living relative , splitting off from humanity about 5 million age ago . human being ' next - secretive living relatives are gorillas , and orangutans are the most distantly related to of the great apes .
Now , researchers can get going tackling smaller - musical scale questions , such as distinguishing the subspecies , Marques - Bonet said . [ Cool Images of Great Ape Subspecies ]
Despite the genetic law of similarity betweenhumans and chimpanzees , the two species are clearly quite different . Some scientists had speculate that the differences halt from the " lost " parts of human genomes compare with chimp genomes . But the new subject disprove that theory by depict that the lost parts were mostly nonfunctional .
So if it ’s not genetics , what produce human different from their cracking - ape cousin ? " If I make out , I would have theNobel Prize , " Marques - Bonet said .
" Having these genome is like hold a book , " he add . " So far , we are only just reading the book . It ’s not the same as understand it . "
The findings are detailed online today ( July 3 ) in the journal Nature .
