An international team of scientists, with Spanish participation, hasSumatran orangutan DNA sequenced( I put abelii ). Subsequent sequencing of five other Sumatran orangutans and fiveBorneo ( Pongo pygmaeus )has shed light on the evolution of great apes and demonstrates the great genetic diversity of these species.
“The average orangutan is more diverse (genetically) than the average human“concludes Devin Locke, lead author of the study published by Nature and an evolutionary geneticist at the Washington University Genome Center in Saint-Louis (USA).
About 13 million orangutan DNA variations have been cataloged for sequencing. In this way scientists have shown the Sumatran and Borneo orangutans separated about 400,000 years ago, when previous calculations had placed the division a million years ago. Currently, there are only about 50,000 orangutans from Borneo and about 7,000 from Sumatra still living in the wild.
The orangutan genome providesnew details to evolutionand provides scientists with new insights into the unique aspects of human DNA that separate man from the great apes. Research shows thatthe human and orangutan genomes are 97% identical. The chimpanzee and humans share 99% of their genes because they evolutionarily separated 6 million years ago, whereas the orangutan and humans separated much earlier, 14 million years ago.
An endangered species
In Malay, orangutan means“man of the forest”. Studies of orangutans are important because these primates are under intense ecological pressure. The number of specimens continues to decline as humans invade their habitat. “Orangutans spend more than 95% of their time in trees. They travel through trees, live in trees and forage for food in trees. But not all the genetic diversity in the world can save them in the wild if their habitat is destroyed. Locke explains. Among the great apes,orangutans are the most distant cousins of humans.
