Humanity could still carry up to 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome, say scientists

Even though the genomes of most modern-day non-African humans possess are just one or two percent Neanderthal,up to 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome could be found in today's humans collectively, new research suggests.

At least one-fifth of the Neanderthal genome may lurk within modern humans, influencing the skin, hair and diseases people have today, researchers say.

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Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, other groups of early humans used to live on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. The ancestors of modern humans diverged from those of Neanderthals between 550,000 and 765,000 years ago.

Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa perhaps about 40,000 to 80,000 years ago, although some research suggests the migration began earlier. About 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin.

However, scientists reasoned that the Neanderthal DNA found in one person might not be the same Neanderthal DNA of someone else. [See Photos of Our Closest Human Ancestor]

"If you are 2 percent Neanderthal and I'm 2 percent Neanderthal, we might not have the same Neanderthal DNA between us," said study lead author Benjamin Vernot, a population geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle. "We might have inherited different portions of the Neanderthal genome.

This logic suggested a significant portion of the Neanderthal genome might survive within the genomes of present-day humans. Past calculations suggested that anywhere from 35 to 70 percent of the Neanderthal genome could exist in modern people.

To find out just how much of the Neanderthal genome might hide within modern humans, Vernot and his colleague Joshua Akey analyzed the genomes of 379 European and 286 East Asian individuals. This involved identifying the DNA that didn't look modern human, and determining when that DNA was introduced into the genome.

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Humanity could still carry up to 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome, say scientists