Y Chromosome from Early Modern Humans Replaced Neanderthal Y

A selective advantage may have led the modern human Y chromosome to sweep through the Neanderthal population after it was introduced via interbreeding more than 100,000 years ago.

Written byJef Akst

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ABOVE: Upper molar of a male Neanderthal from which researchers extracted Y chromosome DNA
I. CREVECOEUR

The Neanderthal Y chromosome is much more closely related to the Y of modern humans than to the Y of Denisovans, another archaic hominin that lived in Eurasia at the same time as Neanderthals, according to a study published today (September 24) in Science. This stands in stark contrast to the rest of the nuclear genome, which has clearly placed Neanderthals and Denisovans as sister groups in a lineage that split from the ancestors of modern humans. The Y chromosome data—the first from Denisovans and the first high-coverage from Neanderthals—suggest that earlier Neanderthals had a Denisovan-like Y chromosome, but that this was replaced by the Y chromosome of modern humans after Neanderthals interbred with them between 370,000 and 100,000 years ago.

“It’s a really a great surprise,” says Mikkel Heide Schierup, an evolutionary biologist at ...

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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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