研究提出来自中国6个直立人标本的牙釉质蛋白
研究提出来自中国6个直立人标本的牙釉质蛋白
作者： 小柯机器人 发布时间：2026/5/14 15:11:25
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所付巧妹团队取得一项新突破。他们的最新研究提出了中国6个直立人标本的牙釉质蛋白。该项研究成果发表在2026年5月13日出版的《自然》上。
在这里，研究人员成功提取并分析了来自周口店、和县和孙家洞遗址的5具男性及1具女性中更新世直立人（约40万年前）标本中的古代牙釉质蛋白。来自这三个遗址的所有标本均共享两个氨基酸变异。其中，AMBN中的A253G以前是未知的，也没有在其他人类谱系中被发现，包括来自德马尼西（格鲁吉亚）的直立人、来自阿塔普尔卡（西班牙）的智人祖先、丹尼索瓦人、尼安德特人和现代人类。另一种变体AMBN（M273V）先前在丹尼索瓦人身上被发现，现在他们的证据表明，它可能是通过与这些中更新世直立猿人相关的人群引入的。丹尼索瓦人基因组中被认为是超古代基因渗入的区域，其中一些后来传给了现代人，很可能起源于直立猿人。中更新世晚期的直立猿人可能与丹尼索瓦人在东亚部分地区共存，据推测，这些相互作用就发生在那里。
据介绍，在非洲、欧亚大陆和东南亚都发现了直立人的遗骸，可追溯到大约200万年前；然而，由于它们的年龄和保存状态，从它们身上获得信息丰富的分子数据是具有挑战性的。
附：英文原文
Title: Enamel proteins from six Homo erectus specimens across China
Author: Fu, Qiaomei, Wu, Zhongyou, Bennett, E. Andrew, Xing, Song, Ji, Qiang, Dong, Zhe, Rao, Huiyun, Gu, Xuejun, Dang, Yizhao, Xing, Jun, Zhou, Kai, Feng, Xiaotian
Issue&Volume: 2026-05-13
Abstract: Homo erectus remains have been found in Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia1,2,3, dating back around two million years; however, owing to their age and state of preservation, obtaining informative molecular data from them has proved challenging. Here we successfully extracted and analysed ancient enamel proteins from five male and one female Middle Pleistocene H. erectus specimens from approximately 0.4million years ago, from the Zhoukoudian, Hexian and Sunjiadong sites. All specimens from all three sites share two amino acid variants. Of these, A253G in AMBN is previously unknown and has not been identified in other human lineages, including H. erectus from Dmanisi (Georgia), Homo antecessor from Atapuerca (Spain), Denisovans, Neanderthals and modern humans. The other variant, AMBN(M273V), has previously been identified in Denisovans, and our evidence now indicates it may have been introduced through populations related to these Middle Pleistocene H. erectus. The regions in the Denisovan genome attributed to super-archaic introgression, some of which later passed to modern humans, are likely to have originated from H. erectus. Late Middle Pleistocene H. erectus may have coexisted with Denisovans in parts of East Asia, where these interactions are presumed to have occurred.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10478-8
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10478-8