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Complete Neanderthal Genome Sequenced – 4
Narrator: This is NIH Health Matters. I’m Joe Balintfy. Researchers have compared DNA samples from Neanderthals who lived 40,000 years ago, to five present-day humans. Dr. Jim Mullikin with the National Human Genome Research Institute says the Neanderthal genome suggests evolution did not proceed in a straight line.
Mullikin: After we were able to sequence it and essentially map it back to other closet living relatives, homo sapiens and chimpanzees, we aligned the sequence back to both of those species and were able to find the differences that are unique to the Neanderthal, and more important, what are similar between Neanderthal and modern humans and modern chimpanzees.
Narrator: For details on the similarities between Neanderthal and human genomes, visit www.genome.gov. Health Matters is produced by the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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