A paper published in Science last week reported that Near Oceanians, that is, people living in the islands close to Papua New Guinea in Melanesia (New Britain, New Ireland, Bouganville, etc.) and the Solomon Islands, mixed with three different types of Denisovans and still carry their genes nowadays because they play a role in the adaptability and survival of these people.
This is the paper: Patrick F. Reilly, Stephen Rong, Daniela Tejada-Martinez, Samantha L. Miller, Audrey Tjahjadi, Chang Liu, Jared Akers, Alysa Pomer, Margaret E. Prentice, D. Andrew Merriwether, Françoise R. Friedlaender, George Koki, Jonathan S. Friedlaender, Steven K. Reilly, Serena Tucci. Long-term isolation and archaic introgression shape functional genetic variation in Near Oceania. Science, 2026; 392 (6803) DOI: 10.1126/science.adr6749
The authors state that they found "previously unidentified archaic sequence and three times more Denisovan sequence than previous studies... We uncovered evidence for introgression from three Denisovan-like groups into the ancestors of Near Oceanians, revealing a new twist on our interactions with archaic hominins." The Denisovan introgressions impact on genes that affect "TRPS1, a skeletal development gene previously found under selection in central African rainforest hunter-gatherers and highland Ecuadorians", and also genes invovled in immune system pathways.
The paper points out that bottlenecks and subsequent genetic drift, and isolation of the populations in the region have shaped their genetics, causing wide differences between different groups.
Regarding the Denisovan introgression, this study "found that Oceanic genomes carry ∼2.5-fold more archaic introgressed sequence from all origins per individual than European genomes... and 14-fold more Denisovan sequence per individual than East Asian genomes."
But, the distribution of Denisovan genes was not uniform, to the contrary, it varied "by almost twofold from the New Guinean Sepik and Goroka groups to New Britain’s Nakanai and the Polynesian outlier groups of Bellona and Rennell... Sepik individuals harbored the most Denisovan introgression, 25 times more than East Asians... In line with prior work, we found that the genomic proportion of Denisovan introgression in Island Southeast Asian and Near Oceanic groups increased with greater shared ancestry with New Guineans, with the Philippine Agta as the sole exception" (the Agta people carry a very high proportion of Denisovan genes with a very low New Guinean shared ancestry, perhaps an indication of admixture within the Philippines).
Neanderthal genes
Interestingly, the authors say there is a high level of Neanderthal admixture in this Oceanian population, and refer to table S6 in the Supplementary material. Checking the table I found that the highest Neanderthal content is found in the Surui people of the Amazonian region in South America! the second highest is found in the Santa Cruz islanders of Oceania. See the adapted image below, from Table S6 in this paper:
However, the authors downplay the highest levels of average Neanderthal genetic content found in these Oceanians by using the excuse of bottlenecks. See how the try to minimize or understate this fact: "We found that despite harboring 41% more Neanderthal introgression per individual and having ~45% larger sample size in our dataset, Oceanic genomes had 28% less Neanderthal coverage than Central and South Asian genomes (tables S6 and S7). One possible explanation for reduced archaic coverage is a population bottleneck after admixture, which would also lead to increased homozygosity of archaic tracts. In support of this, we found both elevated homozygosity of archaic tracts and 2.3 to 3.4% less archaic coverage than expected given per-individual levels of introgression in five Oceanic groups with bottleneck signals..."
Denisovans
As you can see, the Denisovan levels are highest in Oceanians, and those living in Island South East Asia, followed far away by Amerindians and East Asians.
The paper states that "Denisovan introgression likely occurred in multiple pulses from multiple distinct Denisovan-like groups... We recapitulated previous findings of introgression from two Denisovan-like groups in East Asians... and found evidence for introgression from three distinct Denisovan-like groups with differing genetic affinity to the Altai Denisovan into almost all sampled Oceanic populations... we show that these signals are more widespread than previously thought, highlighting the complex dynamics of Denisovan admixture with modern humans."
Implications
It is time to look at who the Denisovans were, and also, the route followed by the Neanderthal admixture into both, Oceanians, Amerindians and East Asians. We also need to understand more about the differences between the Densivoan populations. Their evolution in Altai, East Asia, and especially Sahul and Sunda. Their presence in American Native genes is also relevant.
The simple model of humans meet Neanderthals in the Levant on their Out of Africa migration and mingle with Denisovans on their trek along South Asia into East Asia and Oceania is missing something.
Denisovans must have been a thriving group, all along the eastern, central and southern regions of Asia, perhaps also, Oceania when they were met by Homo sapiens, smoke screens arguing bottlenecks, genetic drift, and isolation can't explain away the fact that a group in the Amazon jungle has the highest levels of Denisovan ancestry in the whole world.
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