Twelve years of neandertal genetic discoveries: State-of-the-art and future challenges

Abstract

The first mitochondrial DNA sequence from a Neandertal specimen was recovered in 1997. Now the completion of the whole Neandertal genome has been announced to be completed in the forthcoming months. About one ­million nucleotides of nuclear DNA have already been sequenced and so far 15 Neandertal specimens have delivered authentic mitochondrial sequences. This information has helped us to better understand the evolution of the Neandertal gene pool over space and time and to address the long-standing question of possible admixture with their modern human relatives. This chapter reviews current knowledge on NeandertalDNA sequences and presents future challenges related to Neandertal genomics.