Chimp evolution was shaped by sex with their bonobo relatives

New Scientist

Image: Axel.Foley

Humans and chimpanzees might have one more thing in common: they both seem to have benefitted from sex with a closely related species.

During the last decade, geneticists have reported that our species interbred with ancient humans including the Neanderthals and Denisovans. They have also found tantalising signs that we benefitted from doing so, gaining DNA that may have boosted our immune systems or made us better able to survive at high altitude or in the frigid Arctic.

Now comes evidence that something similar has been going on in chimpanzees, following episodes of interbreedingwith their close relatives bonobos during the last 500,000 years.

Three of the four subspecies of chimpanzee carry sections of bonobo DNA in their genomes. This prompted Jessica Nyeat Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain and her colleagues to investigate whether the bonobo DNA has benefitted the chimps. Read more on newscientist.com…