What did the new Nobel laureate Svante Paabo: “Looking for grains in a dark room”

Russian geneticist appreciated the contribution of the Swedish biologist to world science

The genetic study of human ancestors has led to the 2022 Nobel Prize for Swedish biologist Svante Paabo. After talking with a Russian geneticist and anthropologist dealing with human population genetics, Elena Balanovskaya, we found out what exactly Paabo’s contribution is, is there a contribution of Russian scientists to his triumph?

Svante Paabo began his work on sequencing (deciphering) the DNA of ancient people almost half a century ago, when there was no decoding of the complete human genome yet. The first genetic material he extracted from ancient Egyptian mummies, then he began to work with the bone materials of Neanderthals. Ancient remains are difficult material to work with DNA, which, as a rule, is damaged in them. But the geneticist, having made many hundreds of attempts, nevertheless achieved a result that few believed in: in 2010, he “collected” the first complete Neanderthal genome, which subsequently made it possible to understand that we have inherited some of the genes of this “distant relative” of ours.

When in Russia, in the Denisova cave in Altai, the bones of an ancient man were found, our archaeologists sent to Svanta Paabo particles of the phalanx of the little finger of a 9-year-old girl who lived 48-50 thousand years ago. And he proved, with the help of technical means available at that time, that Russian archaeologists discovered in an ancient cave a completely new branch on the family tree of a person – the Denisov man (Denisova cave was named after the Old Believer Dionysius, who lived in it as a hermit in the 18th century). Later, scientists concluded that Neanderthals also lived in this cave, and they could intersect with Denisovans, and even interbreed with them, as well as with ancient representatives of Homo sapiens.

– In the work of Svante Paabo on the study of the DNA of ancient hominids, the fact that he undertook it before the onset of the “genome-wide era” is captivating, says Elena Balanovskaya. “Under those conditions, looking for genes in ancient remains was akin to looking for individual grains in a large dark room, illuminating it with a flashlight beam. I was also struck by the fact that he was able to isolate traces of Denisovan DNA not only in the bones, but also in the geological deposits (!) of the Denisova Cave. They were taken to the study to obtain a more objective sample of DNA samples. A lot of money and effort was spent on sequencing all these samples. But in general, I would like to note that the Nobel Prize awarded to Svante Paabo is a recognition of the merits of a large group of scientists from different countries working to discover the genetic memory of the events of human history. It is important that such studies are gaining momentum in Russia as well. So this award can be considered an award to all who study ancient human DNA.