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Cited by 579Genomics and Phylogenetic StudiesPrimate Behavior and EcologyChromosomal and Genetic Variations

The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes

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Prüfer, Kay, Munch, Kasper, Hellmann, Ines, Akagi, Keiko, Miller, Jason R., Walenz, Brian, Koren, Sergey, Sutton, Granger +33 more·2012·Nature
DOI 10.1038/nature11128PMC PMC3498939
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Abstract

Sequencing of the bonobo genome shows that more than three per cent of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo genome or the chimpanzee genome than those genomes are to each other. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are our species' two closest living relatives. This paper reports the genome sequence of the bonobo, the last ape to be sequenced. Comparative genomic analyses reveal that more than 3% of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo or the chimpanzee genome than these are to each other. The results shed light on the ancestry of the two ape species and might eventually help us to understand the genetic basis of phenotypes that humans share with one or the other ape species. Two African apes are the closest living relatives of humans: the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (Pan paniscus). Although they are similar in many respects, bonobos and chimpanzees differ strikingly in key social and sexual behaviours1,2,3,4, and for some of these traits they show more similarity with humans than with each other. Here we report the sequencing and assembly of the bonobo genome to study its evolutionary relationship with the chimpanzee and human genomes. We find that more than three per cent of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo or the chimpanzee genome than these are to each other. These regions allow various aspects of the ancestry of the two ape species to be reconstructed. In addition, many of the regions that overlap genes may eventually help us understand the genetic basis of phenotypes that humans share with one of the two apes to the exclusion of the other.

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  • Early modern humans were a mixed population that received a substantial fraction of ancestry from a superarchaic population that separated from the modern-archaic trunk over a million years ago.

    “More recently, several publications have argued that early modern humans were a mixed population that received a substantial fraction of ancestry from a superarchaic population that separated from the modern-archaic trunk over a million years ago 3,7,23 .”

    From The Genetic Legacy of Introgression from Two Deeply Divergent Lineages in the Genus <i>Homo</i> (2026) · cites this paper as [23]

    The Abstract discusses incomplete lineage sorting among humans, bonobos, and chimpanzees, and dates the bonobo–chimpanzee split to about one million years ago. Searches for early modern human admixture and superarchaic ancestry found no passage in our copy addressing the claimed ancestry or the proposed modern–archaic split. (LLM, conf=0.77)

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 27

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Authors
Prüfer, K., Munch, K., Hellmann, I., Akagi, K., Miller, J. R., Walenz, B., Koren, S., Sutton, G., Kodira, C., Winer, R., Knight, J. R., Mullikin, J. C., Meader, S. J., Ponting, C. P., Lunter, G., Higashino, S., Hobolth, A., Dutheil, J., Karakoç, E., Alkan, C., Sajjadian, S., Catacchio, C. R., Ventura, M., Marques-Bonet, T., Eichler, E. E., André, C., Atencia, R., Mugisha, L., Junhold, J., Patterson, N., Siebauer, M., Good, J. M., Fischer, A., Ptak, S. E., Lachmann, M., Symer, D. E., Mailund, T., Schierup, M. H., Andrés, A. M., Kelso, J., & Pääbo, S.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
  • Aarhus University (DK)
  • University of Vienna (AT)
  • The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (US)
  • J. Craig Venter Institute (US)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Centre for Human Genetics (GB)
  • Tokyo Institute of Technology (JP)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • University of Bari Aldo Moro (IT)
  • Lola ya Bonobo (CD)
  • The Jane Goodall Institute (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (KE)
Corresponding author
  • Prüfer, Kay
  • Pääbo, Svante
ORCID
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2012-06
Volume
486
Issue
7404
Pages
527-531
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature11128
PMC
PMC3498939
OpenAlex
W2036287649
Cited by
579
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 49 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 41 · 2013: 49 · 2012: 18
FWCI
18.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • Bilkent University Institutional Repository (Bilkent University) (submittedVersion)
  • CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (University of Bari Aldo Moro) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (0754461, HG002385)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Ohio Cancer Research Associates (GRT00024299)
  • Ohio State University
  • Ohio Cancer Research (GRT00024299)
  • Wellcome Trust (062535, 090532, 090532/Z/09/Z, 090532/Z/09/, 090532/Z)
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  • Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond
  • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
  • Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie
  • National Institutes of Health (2r01gm077117-04a1)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (HG002385, R01HG002385)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01-GM077117, 2R01GM077117-04A1)
  • Office of International Science and Engineering
  • FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (233297)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
Keywords
bonobos, chimpanzee genome, chimpanzees, human genome, comparative genomics, genome assembly, primate genomics
MeSH terms
Animals, Pan troglodytes, DNA Transposable Elements, Genotype, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Phenotype, Phylogeny, Species Specificity, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome, Evolution, Molecular, Pan paniscus, Gene Duplication

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