Neanderthal DNA Continues to Impact Modern Humans.
A new study published in eLife has developed a suite of computational genetic tools to address the genetic effects of interbreeding between humans of non-African ancestry and Neanderthals that took place some 50,000 years ago. The researchers reported that some Neanderthal genes are responsible for certain traits in modern humans, including several with a significant influence on the immune system. However, the study shows that modern human genes are winning out over successive generations. The new computational methods developed by the team could offer a path forward in gleaning evolutionary insights from other large databases to delve deeper into archaic humans' genetic influences on modern humans.