Researchers at the Natural History Museum at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have for the first time sequenced thegenome of a human being that lived 4,000 years ago. The results of his research are published in the journalNature.
The milestone has been achieved through hair analysis. By recovering 80% of the nuclear genome from just two grams of his hair, the researchers have managed to reconstruct the image of this individual, who turned out to be a male who lived inGreenland4,000 years ago and belonged to the first culture that settled in the Arctic,Saqqaq culture. Scientists have christened itInuk, which means “man” or “human” in Greenlandic.
From Siberia
By analyzing his DNA, scientists have been able to give a description of Inuk’s appearance, including thepredisposition to baldness, theirBrown eyes, itsDark skin, thetype A +blood, the shape of his dental blades, and that he was genetically adapted to low temperatures. In addition, the data suggest that it fed on fish, seals, and seabirds. The analyzes also reveal that lhe ancestors of Inuk crossed into the New World from northeastern Siberia between 4,400 and 6,400 years ago, in a wave of migration that was independent of those of Native Americans and Inuit ancestors.
Genetic analysis of early humans has been a great technical challenge until now, from early work on Egyptian mummies to recent Neanderthal DNA sequencing. Typically, these studies were carried out frombone or skin, two elements in which thegenetic material often appears mixed with bacteria and fungi, and even genes from modern humans, which contaminate the sample. However, studies inmammothspreserved in permafrost in Siberia already revealed that hair DNA can be preserved with virtually no contamination. Danish scientists have now shown that this also applies to ancient human remains.
Eske Willerslev, co-author of the study, assures thatInuk’s genome is comparable in quality to that of a modern human. “Our discoveries can be of important help to archaeologists and other specialists who seek to determine what happened to people of already extinct cultures.”, Concludes the researcher.
