Africans Have More Neanderthal DNA than Previously Thought

A new analysis of more than 2,500 human genomes indicates that modern Eurasians who acquired Neanderthal DNA during past interbreeding migrated back to Africa and spread those sequences.

Written byJef Akst

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Modern Africans have an average of 17 megabases of Neanderthal DNA in their genomes, according to an analysis published today (January 30) in Cell. While that’s still quite a bit less than the 50-plus megabases of Neanderthal DNA found in the genomes of modern Eurasians, it’s more than some scientists expected—and quite a bit more than the zero assumed by the statistical methods that have been used to identify Neanderthal ancestry in modern human genomes.

“We always knew that there was some Neanderthal DNA in Africans,” says Janet Kelso, a computational biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who was not involved in the study. “What’s surprising here is the amount. It’s actually a larger proportion than I think people had imagined.”

Tony Capra, an evolutionary geneticist at Vanderbilt University who also did not participate in the research, concurs. “I wouldn’t have expected ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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