New Paper by Emilia Huerta-Sanchez in Science Journal

Congratulations to Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology Emilia Huerta-Sanchez for her recent publication in the Science Journal.

The paper titled ‘The MUC19 gene: An evolutionary history of recurrent introgression and natural selection’ is available online in this link.

The abstract of the paper is

We study the gene MUC19, for which some modern humans carry a Denisovan-like haplotype. MUC19 is a mucin, a glycoprotein that forms gels with various biological functions. We find diagnostic variants for the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype at high frequencies in admixed American individuals and at highest frequency in 23 ancient Indigenous American individuals, all pre-dating population admixture with Europeans and Africans. We find that the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype is under positive selection and carries a higher copy number of a 30–base-pair variable number tandem repeat, and that copy numbers of this repeat are exceedingly high in admixed American populations. Finally, we find that some Neanderthals carry the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype, and that it was likely introgressed into modern human populations through Neanderthal introgression rather than Denisovan introgression.

Congrats for this big achievement!