Cited by 608Forensic and Genetic ResearchPleistocene-Era Hominins and ArchaeologyGenetic diversity and population structure

DNA analysis of an early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, China

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Fu, Qiaomei, Meyer, Matthias, Gao, Xing, Stenzel, Udo, Burbano, Hernán A., Kelso, Janet, Pääbo, Svante·2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Hominins with morphology similar to present-day humans appear in the fossil record across Eurasia between 40,000 and 50,000 y ago. The genetic relationships between these early modern humans and present-day human populations have not been established. We have extracted DNA from a 40,000-y-old anatomically modern human from Tianyuan Cave outside Beijing, China. Using a highly scalable hybridization enrichment strategy, we determined the DNA sequences of the mitochondrial genome, the entire nonrepetitive portion of chromosome 21 (∼30 Mbp), and over 3,000 polymorphic sites across the nuclear genome of this individual. The nuclear DNA sequences determined from this early modern human reveal that the Tianyuan individual derived from a population that was ancestral to many present-day Asians and Native Americans but postdated the divergence of Asians from Europeans. They also show that this individual carried proportions of DNA variants derived from archaic humans similar to present-day people in mainland Asia.

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1221359110

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  • The study evaluated each individual for evidence of authentic ancient DNA by limiting to libraries with a minimum of 3% cytosine-to-thymine errors at the final nucleotide, requiring X-to-Y-chromosome ratio characteristic of sex, >95% matching to mtDNA consensus, and <2% contamination for males.

    “We evaluated each individual for evidence of authentic ancient DNA by limiting to libraries with a minimum of 3% cytosine-to-thymine errors at the final nucleotide29, by requiring that the ratio of X-to-Y-chromosome sequences was characteristic of either a male or a female, by requiring >95% matching to the consensus sequence of mitochondrial DNA30, and by requiring (for males) a lack of variation”

    From Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation (2018) · cites this paper as [30]

    The citation is attached to the cytosine-to-thymine error criterion. In Results and Discussion (page unavailable), the paper uses end-of-fragment substitutions as evidence of ancient DNA and reports frequencies of 25–30% close to fragment ends. It does not specify a minimum of 3% at the final nucleotide as a library-selection rule. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • We assessed the quality of each library at the screening stage using three standard methods for determining ancient DNA authenticity: mitochondrial genome matching rate, C-to-T substitution rate, and X-chromosome contamination.

    “We assessed the quality of each library at the screening stage using three standard methods for determining ancient DNA authenticity.”

    From Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation (2018) · cites this paper as [30]

    The Results and Discussion section (“DNA Sequence Authenticity”; page unavailable) uses mitochondrial sequence agreement and C→T substitutions to assess whether DNA in the Tianyuan libraries is ancient and largely from one individual. Our copy does not describe X-chromosome contamination as a third method or say that these three methods were used to assess each library at screening. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [3]Shang H, Trinkaus E. The Early Modern Human from Tianyuan Cave. College Station, TX: Texas A&M Univ Press; 2010. [Google Scholar]

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Authors
Fu, Q., Meyer, M., Gao, X., Stenzel, U., Burbano, H. A., Kelso, J., & Pääbo, S.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Society (DE)
  • Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
  • Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology (DE)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2013-01-22
Volume
110
Issue
6
Pages
2223-2227
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2149683346
Cited by
608
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 27 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 78 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 38 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 17
FWCI
27.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
Keywords
early modern humans, ancient DNA, mitochondrial genome, nuclear genome, chromosome 21, archaic admixture, Asian ancestry, Native American ancestry
MeSH terms
Animals, Base Sequence, China, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21, DNA, Mitochondrial, Fossils, Genetics, Population, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid, Hominidae, Gene Library, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Asian People, History, Ancient, Phylogeography

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