Scientists map genome of the bonobo, a key human ancestor

LA Times ^ | 14 June 2012 | Eryn Brown

[smokingfrog]

Researchers have assembled the complete genome of the bonobo, an African ape that is one of humans' closest relatives.

The achievement, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, marks a milestone. Adding the bonobo genome to the already-sequenced human, chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan genomes gives scientists a complete catalog of the DNA of all of the so-called great apes.

That should help researchers better understand how humans evolved, scientists said.

"There's a common ancestor that we and these apes were derived from. We want to know what that ancestor looked like," said Wes Warren, a geneticist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the research. "By adding the bonobo to the mix, we have a better idea."

Now, with all the great ape sequences complete, scientists can better use genetics to help determine whether a particular trait cropped up for the first time in humans, said Kay Pruefer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany.

Pruefer, who was first author of the bonobo genome study, worked with an international team to sequence the DNA of Ulindi, a female bonobo who lives at the Leipzig Zoo.

The work revealed new details about bonobos' early history, he said.

[mamelukesabre]

Whoever wrote this crap should be shot. Even a devout evolutionist does not believe a bonobo is an ancestor to a human.

[I see my hands]

Ooo ooo eee ooo!

[ConorMacNessa]

I call Bullshit! I am not the descendant of a bonobo. If anything, bonobos and humans may, and that's a big may, have a common ancestor homonid in the far distant past. We are not descended from Pongidiae.

I prescind from comment on the question whether I am a Neandertal. I admit to Irish ancestry - that's enough for any man.



Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[aposiopetic]

The work revealed new details about bonobos' early history

That bonobos ate bonbons?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

They should probe the genome of the Obanobo, a key descendent of Marx.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Scientists map genome of the bonobo, a key human ancestor

There isn't a single scientist on the face of the planet who believes the bonobo is a human ancestor, key or otherwise. Whoever wrote the headline for the LA Times is a fool.

[Bowtie52]

Wait a minute; didn’t someone find Algore in this list maybe somewhere near the bottom?

[smokingfrog]

I just checked my family tree.

Didn’t see Grandpa Bonobo there...

[sergeantdave]

Interesting.

Liberals have found grandpa, bonobo, an African ape. Does it look like obuma if he had a son?

[smokingfrog]

You’re definitely related.

I can hear the resemblance.

[Sooth2222]

"Earthmen are not proud of their ancestors and never invite them round to dinner."

[muawiyah]

Basically correct ~ Bonobos are not our ancestors, nor are chimps. Even gorillas don't cut it.

The most recent discovery was that all the Great Apes have their chromosomes spliced together one way, and we have an entirely different way. Actually, it's almost opposite the way it's done in apes.

The division between humans and apes may well go back much further than anyone imagines ~ with the similarities being mostly parallel evolution.

[RobbyS]

Indeed. The deeper we go, the more we find that separates us from the other Primates. Your main point is dead on: if we and they belong to the same biological tree, the branches are widely separated.

[muawiyah]

I recall when epigenetics became a real science within the last 5 years. Up to that moment there were people who thought genes were the be all end all of everything. Turns out they aren't, but then epigenetics is pretty slippery ~ i don't think the evolutionists have quite figured out what it does to their theories, but that's still ongoing.

This more recent discovery that during sexual reproduction the germ cell chromosomes bind to their partners with a different method than that used by the other apes definitely raised questions about how we ended up having some of our genes in common.

There are undoubtely ways other than sexual reproduction to acquire genes from other critters. We just don't know them yet. When we do I think our ideas about life's origins will change more than dramatically.

[JimSEA]

While the bonobo may be the surviving species with DNA most similar to us, our last common ancestor kicked the bucket some seven million years ago. Amazingly stupid headline.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Where does this leave Obama?

[RobbyS]

Remeber that old saw: the more I know the more I know I don’t know. Whatever makes us, US is still largely a mystery. No wonder the sci fi folks float the idea that our “seed” was planted by aliens. We are THAT different from other critters

[Charles Henrickson]

the bonobo, a key human ancestor

Uh, that's a big bonono.

(Smoking frogs, on the other hand. . . .)

[Dr. Sivana]

Darn, at first I thought the scientists had decoded the Bonomo Genome. They and their Turkish Taffy have been extinct for some time.