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The Genographic Project Produces Data

Jun 29, 2007

Starting in 2005, the Genographic Project began to use genetics to unravel anthropological questions such as, did humans and Neandertals interbreed? In today's PLoS Genetics, the researchers, supported by the National Geographic Society and IBM, released their database of 78,590 mtDNA variants contributed by members of the public. (A separate database of samples from indigenous people will be released separately, says blogger Hsein-Hsein Lei.) As for human/Neandertal offspring, the Genographic Project director Spencer Wells told Wired, "We don't see any Neanderthal lineages in the European gene pool."

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