In the past, ancient hominins known as Denisovans frequently interbred with modern humans. Now, an article published in the journal Current Biology concludes that the Filipino people known as Ayta Magbukon, belonging to the ethnic group called Negritos de Filipinas, have the highest level of Denisovan descent in the world. In fact, they carry considerably more Denisovan DNA than the Papuan Highlanders , who until now was the current population with the highest known level of Denisovan ancestry.
For the researchers, these results are striking, since the Negritos of the Philippines are known to have recently mixed with populations from East Asia, with little Denisovan ancestry. “If we take this into account and mask the ancestry related to East Asia, their Denisovan ancestry can be up to 46% greater than that of Australians and Papuans, ” explained Maximilian Larena, a researcher at Uppsala University and one of the authors.
The past complex of the people of the Philippines
The aim of the work was to analyze the demographic history of the Philippines, and the researchers analyzed about 2.3 million genotypes from 118 ethnic groups in the Philippines. Papuan genomes were also included in the sample. The results showed that Ayta Magbukon possesses the highest level of Denisovan ancestry in the world, a fact consistent with the evidence that in the past there were multiple archaic species (such as Denisovans or the newly discovered Homo luzonesis ) that inhabited the Philippines before the arrival of modern humans, and that these archaic groups may have been genetically related.
For the researchers, these findings reveal a complex intertwined history of modern and archaic humans in the Asia-Pacific region, where distinct populations of Denisovan islanders mixed differently with incoming Australians at multiple locations and at various points in time. .
“This mixture led to varying levels of Denisovan ancestry in the genomes of the Negrito and Papuan Filipinos,” explained Jakobsson. “On the Southeast Asian island, Negrito Filipinos later mixed with East Asian migrants who possess little Denisovan ancestry, which subsequently diluted their archaic ancestry. However, some groups, such as Ayta Magbukon, mixed minimally with the newly arrived immigrants. For this reason, the Ayta Magbukon retained most of their inherited archaic traits and retained the highest level of Denisovan ancestry in the world . “
“By sequencing more genomes in the future, we will be better able to address multiple questions, including how inherited archaic traits influenced our biology and how they contributed to our adaptation as a species,” concludes the researcher.
