Researchers reconstruct for the first time the epigenome of a Neanderthal

"Science" has published research that describes, for the first time, the reconstruction of the epigenomes of a Neanderthal and of a Denisovan. An international team, in which the Institute of Oncology of the University of Oviedo participates, has applied a new method that has enabled it to desentangle the pattern of metilation of the DNA of these to extinct species. By comparing their epigenetic patterns with those of modern humans, the researchers have been able to identify the genes whose activity differs between species, and those that mark the evolutionary changes that have configured our species, that is, that have made us like we currently are.

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