by In a scoop, scientists used old proteins to determine the gender of an archaic human family member who lived up to 3.5 million years ago, a new study reports.
An international team of scientists investigated a series of proteins called the proteom. They collected this material from the tooth enamel of one Australopithecus Africanus Person whose remains were found in a South African cave decades ago. The method they used, called Paleoproteomics, has never successfully worked on such an old Hominin (modern people together with their old family members and ancestors), the researchers said in a study published in the study South African Journal of Science on Friday (February 7).
“As far as I know, under the publicly shared hominin -entered proteoms, A. Africanus is the oldest humanity that is subject to paleoproteomic analysis, “Study Lead Author Palesa MadupeA postdoctoral researcher in the section for geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen, Live Science told an e -mail.
PaleoproteomicsThe study of old proteins caught in tooth enamel was developed about 30 years ago. Because proteins can retain longer than DNAPaleoproteomics is used to study the genetic building blocks of beings that are millions of years old, such as one 80 million years old Brachylophosaurus. Only recently, however, have paleoanthropologists able to extract these proteins from our fossil ancestors.
Madupe and her team have worked to restore traces of proteins from Hominin fossils in the cradle of humanity in South Africa, where at least six hominin species lived, including A. Africanus (3.5 million to 2.0 million years ago) and Homo Naledi (335,000 to 236,000 years ago). Paleoproteomics, they wrote in the study, can help researchers better understand how the different types of vary. This would include determining the genus of these individuals, which is not always easy given the fragmentary nature of fossilized skeletons.
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With the help of a minimally invasive technique, the researchers have extracted more than 100 peptides – short chains of amino acids built into proteins – from the tooth of one A. Africanus person found in the Sterkfontein limestone caves In South Africa. Several of these peptides were unique for Amelogenine, a protein that is the key to normal tooth development. Because men and women build this protein different, the researchers can A. Africanus Tooth was of a male individual.
The study was published as part of a special edition of the South African Journal of Science In honor of the 100th anniversary of the “Taung -cind‘ Nature On February 7, 1925, the Australian anthropologist Raymond Dart encouraged that A. Africanus Was a human family member, making it the first old Hominin ever discovered in Africa.
Although the new study proved that proteins can be recovered from Hominin fossils to 3 million years old in South Africa, Madupe wants to apply technology to a broader range of regions and climates around the world.
“These are all incredibly exciting breakthroughs that are ready to bring about a revolution in our understanding of human evolution,” the researchers wrote.
