Q Is it true that many people carry Neanderthal DNA?
A “For the most part, Neanderthal genes are still with us,” said UW-Madison anthropologist John Hawks. “If you look across enough people, much of the Neanderthal genome is represented in one person or another.”
On average, about 2 to 3 percent of each person’s DNA is from Neanderthals — approximately the same amount as from one great-great-great-grandparent — with people of European and Asian descent tending toward the higher end of that range and those with primarily African ancestry toward the lower end.
It’s less clear what that ancient DNA is doing. Hawks studies which Neanderthal genes have stuck around and what they might be doing in modern humans.
So far he has identified a few genes where the Neanderthal version is unexpectedly common, including some involved in metabolism and the immune system. He’s also interested in which Neanderthal genes have disappeared over time and why.
These links to one of our closest ancestors provide a new way to look at both human evolution and modern genetics, he said.
“There is an endless list of things we could never tell from fossils that now we might discover if we understood enough about human biology to know which genes make a difference,” Hawks said.
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