They were particularly interested in what is called incomplete lineage sorting.

The great ape genome comparisons are also enabling researchers to gain new insights on what happened to the various ape genomes during and after the divergence or splitting apart into different species from a common ancestor. The researchers explained in the paper, 'We focused on genes that have been lost, changed in structure, or expanded in the last few million years of bonobo evolution.' Eichler is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.īy comparing the bonobo genome to that of other great apes, the researchers found more than 5,571 structural variants that distinguished the bonobo and chimpanzee lineages. The senior scientists were Evan Eichler, professor of genome sciences at the UW School of Medicine, and Mario Ventura of the University of Bari. Catacchio, of the Department of Biology at the University of Bari, Italy. The multi-institutional project was led by Yafei Mao, of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, and Claudia R. In a May 5 Nature paper, researchers explain how they developed and analyzed the new bonobo assembly, and what juxtaposing it to other great ape genomes is revealing. All these species, as well as extinct, ancient, human-like beings, are referred to as hominids.īecause chimpanzee and bonobo are also the closest living species to modern humans, comparing higher-quality genomes could help uncover genetic changes that set the human species apart. The high quality of this assembly is allowing scientists to more accurately compare the bonobo genome to that of other great apes - the gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee - as well as to the modern human. According to the researchers on this project, more than 98% of the genes are now completely annotated and 99% of the gaps are closed. A new bonobo genome assembly has been constructed with a multiplatform approach and without relying on reference genomes.

Chimps and bonobos