Explained | 2022 Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo’s research on human evolution
The Hindu
Dr. Svante Pääbo had published the first Neanderthal genome sequence in 2010.
The story so far: The 2022 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo for his research in the field of genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.
“Thanks to Svante Pääbo’s discoveries, we now understand that archaic gene sequences from our extinct relatives influence the physiology of present-day humans. One such example is the Denisovan version of the gene EPAS1, which confers an advantage for survival at high altitude and is common among present-day Tibetans. Other examples are Neanderthal genes that affect our immune response to different types of infections,” the academy’s citation read.
Dr. Pääbo’s research has resulted in the rise of a new scientific disciple called paleogenomics, which is the study and analysis of genes of ancient or extinct organisms.
The prize was announced on Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
Dr. Pääbo’s groundbreaking research attempts to answer questions about human evolution. He was able to sequence the genome of the Neanderthal, a species of humans that existed on the earth and went extinct around 30,000 years ago. He also discovered Denisova – a previously-unknown hominin. (Hominins are extinct members of the human lineage.) Dr. Pääbo’s research led him to the conclusion that “gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago”.
This ancient gene flow has significant physiological relevance for present-day humans, The Nobel Foundation said in a press release.
Dr. Pääbo was fascinated with the idea of studying the DNA of Neanderthals from early on in his career, but it was not an easy task. Over time, DNA tends to degrade and become chemically modified. Since Neanderthals became extinct 30,000 years ago, only trace amounts of their DNA would have been left in fossils, if any.
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