Genetic Differences Between Humans and Neanderthals
An international group of scientists completed a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome in May 2010. The results indicate some breeding between humans and Neanderthals, as the genomes of non-African humans have 1-4% more in common with Neanderthals than do the genomes of subsaharan Africans. Neanderthals and most humans share a lactose-intolerant variant of the lactase gene that encodes an enzyme that is unable to break down lactose in milk after weaning. Humans and Neanderthals also share the FOXP2 gene variant associated with brain development and with speech in humans, indicating that Neanderthals may have been able to speak. Chimps have two amino acid differences in FOXP2 compared with human and Neanderthal FOXP2.
Read more about this topic: Human Evolutionary Genetics
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