Sequence of proteins to know the Neandertal
2005/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute, in collaboration with the University of Washington, have extracted and sequenced a protein from a bone of a Neanderthal 75 thousand years ago.
It is the oldest protein that has been sequenced so far. In fact, osteocalcin is a protein that has been seen equal to the human. To reach this conclusion, the sequence of this ancient protein has been compared with the sequences of man, chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan. As they have seen, the gorilla is different: in some position it has hydroxyproline where the rest has proline. The key is in the diet: the gorilla is herbivorous and takes vitamin C necessary to produce hydroxyproline. The rest of hominids, on the other hand, do not always contain this vitamin in their diet and, sometimes, they would be seriously affected by the production of hydroxyproline.
On the other hand, this study has shown that proteins are the key to better know the physiology and diet of human beings and hominids of thousands of years ago, among other aspects, since DNA does not last so long.
