"Mitochondrial Eva" and "genetic Adam" are the progenitors of the human race

At the end of the 20th century, in the process of studying the composition of the genetic code , a new scientific branch arose. It began to be called molecular paleontology. It was found that in the human genotype it is possible to identify traces of the evolution of the species. Scientists have learned to extract data from petrified remains that belonged to beings who lived in remote antiquity. The received information significantly changed the concept of the early stages of human development. The findings led to new research. Their results disproved the earlier ideas about the picture of the evolution of the world on the planet.

A. Wilson's research

A professor at the University of California , Berkeley, argued that the ancestors of the human race were descended from a single woman. She used to live in Africa. Her descendants later settled on the rest of the continents. As a result of their extensive spread, a genetic diversity of people arose. The group, led by Wilson, developed two fundamental concepts, within which research was carried out.

Basic Ideas

Based on the results of a comparative analysis of proteins, it was found that in the course of molecular evolution at a constant rate, neutral mutations accumulate. This was Wilson's first idea. The rate at which changes in genes occur due to neutral point mutations is constant in time. In this connection, it can be used as a kind of evolutionary chronometer, by means of which it is possible to date the departure of a particular branch from the main trunk. This was the second idea. As a result, it all comes down to a fairly simple arithmetic problem, where time is necessary to determine the time parameters for known speed indicators and path parameters.

Comparative studies

They were started in 1987. For research by Wilson, not nuclear, but mitochondrial DNA was taken. The latter is a small ring molecule. It consists of 16 thousand pairs of nucleotides. They form 37 genes. Of this amount, the ability to mutate is found no more than 2%. This is due to the fact that most genes are vital. Nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid includes 3.2 billion pairs of nucleotides.

Meanwhile, the determining factor was not only the size that mitochondrial DNA has. Wilson was also guided by other criteria. In particular, it is established that the X-chromosome is inherited only on the female line. In the process of fusion of the spermatozoon and the egg during fertilization, the organoid of the sperm is destroyed in the cytoplasm. As a result, the embryo transmits the X chromosome only from the mother. This circumstance makes it possible to follow the predecessors of the individual through the female line.

Simply put, each person receives mitochondria from the mother, she - from her and so on. Accordingly, you can build a line with which you can look into the most distant past. In mitochondrial DNA, neutral mutations accumulate at a constant rate. In addition, it does not recombine. It follows that differences in the nucleotide composition are due only to mutations.

Family tree

Having established the presence of all such inhabitants of the planet of such a chronometer, Wilson began to analyze human genealogy. For the study, samples of 182 different types of mtDNA from 241 individuals were taken. This number included representatives from each race of 42 nationalities. Of course, young nations are more homogeneous in the genetic sense, whereas for older ones a larger spectrum of mutations that were accumulated in the course of their existence is characteristic. The probability that the DNA pattern will coincide in unrelated individuals is 10-15, the accuracy of identification is 10-7. Each inhabitant of the planet differs from the other by 1 nucleotide from a thousand.

Wilson's group investigated the D-loop. This is a special hypervariable region of DNA, whose length is 300 pairs of nucleotides. It is a neutral zone. In this area, the mutations that occur do not lead to pathologies and do not give any advantages to the owners of other sequences. As a result, Wilson built a genealogical tree. It indicated the presence of the greatest difference in mitochondrial genes in Africa. All the samples studied were reduced to the original single nucleotide sequence.

Thus, Wilson explained the origin of people from one woman. However, he did not claim that she was at that time alone the only one on the planet. According to the results of mathematical modeling, it was established that the effective population size was no less than 10 thousand.

Studies of other scientists

Having established that the mitochondrial Eva is the single mother of all individuals living on the planet, Wilson went further. Having a known rate of mutation, he was able to establish its age. Wilson determined that the mitochondrial Eve lived about 200-150 thousand liters. Back. This woman was older than the Neanderthal man.

Information on the analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid was obtained by other scientists. So, for example, Satoshi Horai pointed out that modern individuals appeared about 200 thousand years ago in the territory of Africa. From there they moved to Eurasia and quickly replaced Homo erectus from there. At the same time, there was almost no mixing of mitochondrial genotypes. After some time, Satoshi Horei tried to calibrate the "chronometer". According to the updated data, the age of today's man is 143 thousand years.

Other groups of researchers also found that the first individual appeared in Africa. At the same time, scientists analyzed nuclear genes. Resettlement, according to researchers, occurred no earlier than 100 thousand liters. Back. English scientists studied a fragment of the nuclear gene, which is responsible for the synthesis of B-globin. This site was analyzed by 349 residents from different regions of the world. According to the results of the study it was also found that the origin of people is connected with the territory of Africa. Similar conclusions were drawn by many other scientists.

Thus, the discovery of Wilson gave impetus to other studies in the most diverse laboratories of the planet. All the works that were performed by independent scientists indicate that the place where the mitochondrial Eva appeared is east Africa.

Comparison with a linguistic tree

An attempt to analyze molecular genetics and the processes of language spread has been undertaken by Qualley-Sforza. The comparison showed that a tree constructed from the results of genetic studies corresponds to a linguistic tree. Thus, the combination of genogeography and ethnic geography was revealed.

Mitochondrial Eva and Y-chromosome Adam

During Wilson's lifetime, an attempt was made to trace the paternal line of all the individuals that inhabit the planet today. According to preliminary analysis, it was confirmed that in Africa there was a mitochondrial Eva, and genetic Adam. A number of interesting facts were established during the research.

The Y chromosome has a size of 60 million nucleotide pairs. It does not recombine, and therefore differences in the composition are due to mutagenesis. More accurate studies were conducted by Professor Underhall. He collected material for analysis from virtually all regions of the planet. Y-chromosome is only in men. Accordingly, it passes exclusively from father to son.

According to the results of the analysis, it was established that the first man appeared about the same time as the mitochondrial Eve - about 150-160 thousand years ago. The difference in age fits into the error of the calculation method. Similar conclusions were drawn by another independent research group, led by M. Hammer.

Mitochondrial Eva: a refutation of established theories

From the above, we can draw the following conclusions. In Africa, about 150-180 thousand years ago, the first people emerged . Approximately 100 thousand years ago they began to migrate in the oecumene. At the same time, they replaced all the hominids that lived in the territories without interbreeding with them. Approximately 40 thousand years ago the first people appeared in Europe. Further studies have yielded very surprising results. So, Professor Svanthe Paabo was able to extract mitochondrial DNA from a vertebral fragment belonging to the Neanderthal man, which was first discovered in 1856 and lived about 50 thousand years ago. According to the results of the comparative analysis it was established that this hominid is not not that an ancestor, but even a close relative of modern individuals.

Different directions of evolution

The revealed differences were so significant that scientists came to the conclusion that evolutionary branches of species could and, in fact, had to go in different directions 600 thousand years ago. The existing diversity of mitochondrial DNA Homo sapiens are 24 substitutions, and the Neanderthals have 32. This circumstance indicates that the latter go beyond the species variability of humans. Accordingly, Neanderthals form a separate direction of evolution and belong to a parallel and at the same time dead-end branch.

Confirmation of the conclusions

The results of the studies carried out by Paabo radically change the notion of anthropogenesis. In this connection, it became necessary to verify the findings of a group of independent scientists. A fragment of the Neanderthal bone was studied by M. Stoneking, a follower of Wilson. After analyzing the remains of a child who lived about 30 thousand years ago, the scientist received the same data as Paabo. Accordingly, the conclusions of the latter were fully confirmed. After a while, a group of German researchers conducted an analysis of Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA. The result also confirmed the previously put forward hypothesis. According to the paleontologist K. Stringer, humanity stands on the verge of forming a unified theory, within which archaeological, genetic, paleoanthropological and linguistic evidence of the African model will unite.

Spiritual aspect

Synthesis of all the above directions can bring humanity closer to unraveling the mystery of its origin. Meanwhile, according to a number of authors, anthropogenesis can not be reduced to an exclusively scientific question. In their opinion, the arrival of people into the world is not only a material, but also a spiritual phenomenon. The authors give excerpts from the Holy Scripture in support of their position. Since there are some material remains of creatures that are close to a person by morphological features, the question arises of determining the place in the process of evolution, in which the individual becomes, in fact, a man.

Conclusion

The Holy Scripture says nothing about the mechanism of creation. At the same time it informs about the fact of the creation of man by God. The main thing in this process was the spiritualization of the body, as a result of which a person ceased to be an animal. As St. Philaret of Moscow, the creation was not a one-time action, but a long and gradual education. It is this sacred moment - when God breathed into the body the Holy Spirit - and there is the beginning of true human existence, in the opinion of adherents of religious theory. Reasoned on this subject and St.. Gregory of Nyssa. In his work, he wrote that man was the last person after vegetation and animals. Nature somehow followed the path to perfection. However, Scripture itself does not explain this process. At this point, spiritual theory is at an impasse. It is supposed that scientists should trace the path of "ascent to perfection".