Strong reproductive isolation between humans and Neanderthals inferred from observed patterns of introgression
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Recent studies have revealed that 2–3% of the genome of non-Africans might come from Neanderthals, suggesting a more complex scenario of modern human evolution than previously anticipated. In this paper, we use a model of admixture during a spatial expansion to study the hybridization of Neanderthals with modern humans during their spread out of Africa. We find that observed low levels of Neanderthal ancestry in Eurasians are compatible with a very low rate of interbreeding (<2%), potentially attributable to a very strong avoidance of interspecific matings, a low fitness of hybrids, or both. These results suggesting the presence of very effective barriers to gene flow between the two species are robust to uncertainties about the exact demography of the Paleolithic populations, and they are also found to be compatible with the observed lack of mtDNA introgression. Our model additionally suggests that similarly low levels of introgression in Europe and Asia may result from distinct admixture events having occurred beyond the Middle East, after the split of Europeans and Asians. This hypothesis could be tested because it predicts that different components of Neanderthal ancestry should be present in Europeans and in Asians.
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Multiple hybridization events over time and space in western Eurasia are consistent with the levels of Neanderthal ancestry observed in modern populations.
“In particular, it has been shown that multiple hybridization events over time and space in western Eurasia are consistent with the levels of Neanderthal ancestry observed in modern populations (7).”
From Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry (2023) · cites this paper as [7]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Currat, M., & Excoffier, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Geneva (CH)
- University of Bern (CH)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2011-09-12
- Volume
- 108
- Issue
- 37
- Pages
- 15129-15134
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC3174651
- OpenAlex
- W1993481578
- Cited by
- 158
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 88.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion)
- Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (127465)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
- Keywords
- Neanderthal introgression, reproductive isolation, admixture, hybrid fitness, gene flow barriers, Neanderthal ancestry, mtDNA introgression, modern human evolution, out-of-Africa migration, Eurasian populations
- MeSH terms
- Animals, China, Computer Simulation, Consanguinity, Demography, France, Humans, Hybridization, Genetic, Reproduction, Hominidae, White People, Asian People
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