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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Primer Extension Capture: Targeted Sequence Retrieval from Heavily Degraded DNA Sources
Published on: September 3, 2009
Drafting human ancestry: what does the Neanderthal genome tell us about hominid evolution? Commentary on Green et al.
1Chair for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department of Biology (Area 2), The University of York, Wentworth Way, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Abstract:
Ten years after the first draft versions of the human genome were announced, technical progress in both DNA sequencing and ancient DNA analyses has allowed a research team around Ed Green and Svante Pääbo to complete this task from infinitely more difficult hominid samples: a few pieces of bone originating from our closest, albeit extinct, relatives, the Neanderthals. Pulling the Neanderthal sequences out of a sea of contaminating environmental DNA impregnating the bones and at the same time avoiding the problems of contamination with modern human DNA is in itself a remarkable accomplishment. However, the crucial question in the long run is, what can we learn from such genomic data about hominid evolution?
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