The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes

Kay Prüfer, Kasper Munch, Ines Hellmann, Keiko Akagi, Jason R. Miller, Brian Walenz, Sergey Koren, Granger Sutton, Chinnappa Kodira, Roger Winer, James R. Knight, James C. Mullikin, Stephen J. Meader, Chris P. Ponting, Gerton Lunter, Saneyuki Higashino, Asger Hobolth, Julien Dutheil, Emre Karakoç, Can AlkanSaba Sajjadian, Claudia Rita Catacchio, Mario Ventura, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Evan E. Eichler, Claudine André, Rebeca Atencia, Lawrence Mugisha, Jörg Junhold, Nick Patterson, Michael Siebauer, Jeffrey M. Good, Anne Fischer, Susan E. Ptak, Michael Lachmann, David E. Symer, Thomas Mailund, Mikkel H. Schierup, Aida M. Andrés, Janet Kelso, Svante Pääbo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

363 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two African apes are the closest living relatives of humans: the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (Pan paniscus). Although they are similar in many respects, bonobos and chimpanzees differ strikingly in key social and sexual behaviours, and for some of these traits they show more similarity with humans than with each other. Here we report the sequencing and assembly of the bonobo genome to study its evolutionary relationship with the chimpanzee and human genomes. We find that more than three per cent of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo or the chimpanzee genome than these are to each other. These regions allow various aspects of the ancestry of the two ape species to be reconstructed. In addition, many of the regions that overlap genes may eventually help us understand the genetic basis of phenotypes that humans share with one of the two apes to the exclusion of the other.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)527-531
Number of pages5
JournalNature
Volume486
Issue number7404
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 28 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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