Study
Insights into hominid evolution from the gorilla genome sequence
Scally, Aylwyn; Dutheil, Julien Y.; Hillier, LaDeana W.; Jordan, Gregory E.; Durbin, Richard
Nature, 2012
The western lowland gorilla genome was sequenced and assembled, then compared base by base against human, chimpanzee and orangutan genomes to reconstruct the order and timing of the splits between the lineages.
- Studied in
- Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Homo sapiens, Pongo abelii
- Sample size
- whole-genome assembly with comparative analysis across great apes
Humans and chimpanzees are each other's closest relatives, with gorillas branching earlier. However, across roughly 15% of the genome, humans or chimpanzees are more closely related to gorillas than to each other — the expected consequence of ancestral population structure sorting differently at different loci. Eastern and western gorillas were found to have separated substantially earlier than previously supposed.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The great ape family tree is well resolved at the species level while individual genomic regions legitimately disagree with it, reflecting the population history beneath the species split.
How NatureHQ reads it
The 15% figure is regularly reported as though the family tree were in doubt, and it is not. What it reflects is that a species split is a process rather than an event: for a long stretch, the ancestral population carried variation that then sorted at random into the descendant lineages. Different bits of the genome record different draws from that lottery. The species-level relationship — humans and chimpanzees together, gorillas outside — is not in question, and it is also the fact that disposes of "humans descended from gorillas": gorillas are a cousin lineage, not an ancestor, and neither is a chimpanzee.
- One individual as the reference for a species with substantial population structure.
- Divergence times depend on assumed mutation and generation rates, which have been revised.
- Assembly quality in repetitive regions constrains some conclusions.
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