Latest news with #ClaireKoenig
IOL News
02-06-2025
- Science
- IOL News
Groundbreaking study reveals biological sex and genetic diversity in Paranthropus robustus
Dr Palesa Madupe, Dr Claire Koenig and Dr Ioannis Patramanis. Image: Victor Yan Kin Lee Researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Copenhagen have achieved a scientific first by using 2-million-year-old protein traces to determine the biological sex and uncover previously hidden genetic variation in Paranthropus robustus, an extinct close relative of modern humans. Published in the journal Science, the research analysed ancient proteins extracted from fossilised teeth discovered in South Africa's Cradle of Humankind. The remarkable discovery represents some of the oldest human genetic data ever recovered from Africa and challenges established understandings of this early hominin. The study's co-lead, Dr Palesa Madupe, a research associate at UCT's Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute, is part of a powerful African cohort transforming palaeoanthropology from within. "Because we can sample multiple African Pleistocene hominin individuals classified within the same group, we're now able to observe not just biological sex, but for the first time genetic differences that might have existed among them," said Madupe. UCT's HERI played a central role in the research, with co-director Professor Rebecca Ackermann as a senior author, and contributions from co-director Robyn Pickering and multiple HERI research associates. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ The team used cutting-edge palaeoproteomic techniques and mass spectrometry to identify sex-specific variants of amelogenin, a protein found in tooth enamel. Two of the ancient individuals were conclusively male; the others, inferred through novel quantitative methods, were female. Paper co-lead and postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, Claire Koenig, explained: 'Enamel is extremely valuable because it provides information about both biological sex and evolutionary relationships. However, since identifying females relies on the absence of specific protein variants, it is crucial to rigorously control our methods to ensure confident results.' The university explained that unexpectedly, another enamel protein – enamelin, revealed genetic diversity among the four individuals. Two shared a particular variant, a third had a distinct one, and a fourth displayed both. Co-lead and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute Ioannis Patramanis said while studying proteins, specific mutations are thought to be characteristic of a species. 'We were thus quite surprised to discover that what we initially thought was a mutation uniquely describing Paranthropus robustus was actually variable within that group,' said Patramanis. The university added that this revelation forces a rethink of how ancient hominin species are identified, showing genetic variation, not just skeletal traits, must be considered in understanding their complexity. According to the researchers, Paranthropus lived in Africa between 2.8 and 1.2 million years ago, walking upright and likely coexisting with early members of Homo. Though on a different evolutionary path, its story remains central to understanding human origins. Madupe added that this study not only advances palaeoproteomics in Africa, but also highlights the vital role of African scholars in rewriting human history. 'As a young African researcher, I'm honoured to have significantly contributed to such a high-impact publication as its co-lead. But it's not lost on me that people of colour have a long journey to go before it becomes commonplace more of us need to be leading research like this,' said Madupe. Get your news on the go, click here to join the Cape Argus News WhatsApp channel. Ackermann detailed that HERI was actively leading that shift and the institute launched programmes introducing palaeoproteomic techniques to a new generation of African scientists and is expanding training across the continent. 'We are excited about the capacity building that has come out of this collaboration. The future of African-led palaeoanthropology research is bright,' Ackerman said. Cape Argus
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
2.2 million-year-old teeth reveal secrets of human relatives found in a South African cave
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Small pieces of tooth enamel from deep in a South African cave have begun to reveal secrets held for 2 million years by a distant human relative, a new study finds.. Archaeologists recovered teeth from four members of the species Paranthropus robustus, a two-legged human relative who lived between 1.8 million and 1.2 million years ago, from Swartkrans, a fossil-bearing cave in Africa's Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site. Using cutting-edge techniques that can analyze fossils' amino acid sequences, the researchers were able to determine the sex of the individuals and discovered surprising genetic variation that could point to the existence of a previously unknown species. These techniques are part of the field of proteomics, or studying sets of preserved proteins — a relatively new area of science that is shedding much-needed light on the evolution of early hominins, a group that includes humans and our closest relatives. "Figuring out the human family tree using proteins is the goal," Claire Koenig, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of a study published Thursday (May 29) in the journal Science, told Live Science in an email co-written with lead author Palesa Madupe and co-author Ioannis Patramanis. But currently "our ability to distinguish between different species is limited by the small number of different proteins present in enamel." Although DNA has been recovered from ancient skeletons in Africa, so far that technique has only successfully worked on hominin material dating to no more than 20,000 years ago — well within the lifetime of our own species, Homo sapiens — because DNA degrades quickly in that environment. To get at the roughly 6 million-year history of hominin evolution, analysis of the harder and more stable tissue of dental enamel is needed. In the new study, an international team of researchers led by Madupe employed paleoproteomic analysis to move beyond the limits of ancient DNA and understand the genes of four hominins who lived around 2 million years ago. "Proteomics is inherently a destructive technique, but we take great care to minimize impact, especially when working with rare or precious specimens," Koenig said. Related: In a 1st, ancient proteins reveal sex of human relative from 3.5 million years ago The researchers focused their proteomic analysis on four P. robustus individuals who likely all died around the same time. They were able to identify AMELY-specific peptides, which are found in the tooth enamel of males, in two individuals. The other two individuals had a high AMELX intensity, meaning they were likely female. Correctly determining the sex of a fossil is important in paleoanthropology because most hominins are sexually dimorphic, with males being, on average, larger than females. Experts therefore expect that any species will have some larger and some smaller individuals. But Madupe and colleagues discovered a surprising result: one P. robustus individual who was thought to be female, based on tooth size and shape, was actually male, based on proteomic data. "Our results thus indicate that measurements of dental size are not necessarily accurate for correct sex estimation," the researchers wrote in the study. Since sex alone could not explain the differences in the appearance of P. robustus, the team investigated whether the diversity they were seeing could be the result of different groups or species they didn't know about, or the result of interbreeding, as P. robustus overlapped in time with australopithecines and early members of the Homo genus. The researchers found a couple amino acid sequence positions that varied among the P. robustus specimens they examined, and that were different from the amino acid sequences seen in present-day humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. This analysis revealed that one of the individuals — SK-835, whose molecular sex and morphological sex did not match up — was more distantly related to the other three individuals than they were to each other. "It would be premature to classify SK-835 as a member of the newly proposed Paranthropus [capensis] taxa," Koenig said, but it remains a possibility that the amino acid difference reflects its position in a different species than the rest. It could also be explained, however, by microevolution at different sites, study co-author Rebecca Ackermann, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cape Town, told Live Science in an email. "We need to analyse more Paranthropus material from different sites to get a better handle on the variation within southern African Paranthropus," she said. RELATED STORIES —Smallest human relative ever found may have been devoured by a leopard 2 million years ago —What's the oldest known case of cancer in humans? —World's oldest human DNA found in 800,000-year-old tooth of a cannibal Because the enamel proteome is so much smaller — and provides less information — than a full genome, reconstructions of fossil human relatives need to be cautiously interpreted, Ackermann said. Koenig expects that further methodological developments will be beneficial, including less invasive methods such as acid etching to remove an extremely thin layer of dental enamel, and the development of faster and more sensitive protein-sequencing instruments. "It remains to be seen, for example, whether or not we can molecularly tell apart a Paranthropus robustus from an Australopithecus africanus," Koenig said, "because these species are closely related and therefore their proteins are going to look very similar."
