NEW YORK – Using skull and dental calculus samples from an ancient hominin individual found at an archeological site in northeastern China, independent research teams identified proteomic and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) ties between a recently described early hominin species known as

纽约——通过使用在中国东北部一考古遗址发现的古代人类个体的头骨和牙结石样本，独立研究团队鉴定了最近描述的一种早期人类物种之间的蛋白质组和线粒体DNA（mtDNA）联系，该物种被称为

Homo longi

龙人

and Denisovan populations.

Denisovan 人群。

For the first of the papers,

对于第一篇论文，

published in

发布于

Science

科学

on Wednesday

在周三

, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other centers in China began by screening for ancient DNA in tooth and petrous bone samples from the so-called 'Harbin individual,' named for the Chinese city where the individual's 'nearly complete,' morphologically informative skull sample was found..

，来自中国科学院和其他研究中心的研究人员开始对所谓的“哈尔滨个体”的牙齿和耳骨样本进行古代DNA筛选，这个个体因其形态信息丰富的“几乎完整”的头骨样本在中国城市哈尔滨被发现而得名。

The Pleistocene age Harbin individual, nicknamed the 'Dragon Man,' was dated to at least 146,000 years old. In a study published in the journal

更新世时期的哈尔滨个体，绰号“龙人”，被测定为至少14.6万年前。在一项发表于期刊的研究中。

The Innovation

创新

in 2021

2021年

, members of the same team linked the Harbin individual to the

，同一团队的成员将哈尔滨个人与

H. longi

长针属（H. longi）

hominin species.

人族物种。

'Since the first report of this cranium in 2021, intense debate has arisen regarding its taxonomic affiliation,' senior and co-corresponding author Qiang Ji, a researcher with the Hebei International Joint Research Center for Paleoanthropology at Hebei Geo University, and his colleagues wrote, adding that 'any ancient DNA or protein recovered from this individual would provide crucial evidence to connect molecular material to morphology, thereby improving our understanding of human evolutionary genealogy during the Middle Pleistocene in Asia.'.

“自从2021年首次报告这个头骨以来，关于其分类归属引发了激烈的争论，”资深作者兼通讯作者之一、河北地质大学古人类学国际联合研究中心研究员季强及其同事写道，并补充说“从这个个体中提取的任何古代DNA或蛋白质将提供关键证据，将分子材料与形态联系起来，从而增进我们对亚洲中更新世时期人类进化谱系的理解。”

After coming up empty-handed during the new search for hominin DNA sequences, the investigators turned their attention to mass spectrometry-based proteomic analyses on two petrous samples, analyzing the apparent amino acid sequences identified in relation to modern human proteome collections as well as protein sequences predicted from genetic sequences previously found in archaic hominin bone and dentine samples..

在对新人族DNA序列的新一轮搜索无果后，调查人员将注意力转向了基于质谱的蛋白质组学分析，针对两个耳蜗样本，分析了与现代人类蛋白质组集合相关的明显氨基酸序列，以及从先前在古老的人族骨骼和牙本质样本中发现的基因序列预测出的蛋白质序列。

With this strategy, they uncovered several amino acid variants classified as Denisovan-specific, derived variants, with ancient amino acids from the Harbin individual clustering with a Denisovan population called Denisova 3,

通过这一策略，他们发现了几种被归类为丹尼索瓦人特有的氨基酸变异体，这些变异体来源于衍生变异，来自哈尔滨个体的古老氨基酸与一个名为Denisova 3的丹尼索瓦人群体聚集在一起。

described in

描述在

Science

科学

in 2012

2012年

.

。

'[D]espite the lack of preserved ancient human DNA in the petrous bone and teeth of the Harbin cranium, abundant proteins were found, resulting in a good quality proteome currently recovered from archaic hominins,' the authors reported. 'Through the proteomic analysis, we were able to definitively identify this individual as Denisovan.'.

“尽管在哈尔滨头骨的岩骨和牙齿中缺乏保存完好的古代人类DNA，但发现了丰富的蛋白质，从而获得了目前从古老古人类中恢复的高质量蛋白质组，”作者报告说。“通过蛋白质组学分析，我们能够明确地将此个体鉴定为丹尼索瓦人。”

Those findings, in turn, suggested that morphological features found in the Harbin individual can provide an improved morphological understanding of Denisovans — a group of hominins that have been morphologically murky in the past.

这些发现反过来表明，哈尔滨个体中的形态特征可以提供对丹尼索瓦人更好的形态理解——过去这一人群的形态一直很模糊。

'[W]e now have the first comprehensive morphological blueprint for Denisovan populations, helping to address an unresolved question that has persisted over the last decade on what Denisovans looked like,' the authors reported, noting that the ancient proteome findings further 'provide solid evidence that Denisovans were widely distributed across East Asia, as has been inferred in previous studies.'.

“我们现在已经获得了第一个全面的丹尼索瓦人群体形态蓝图，有助于解答过去十年来一直悬而未决的问题——丹尼索瓦人长什么样，”作者报告称，并指出古代蛋白质组的发现进一步“提供了确凿证据，证明丹尼索瓦人广泛分布于东亚地区，正如先前研究中所推断的那样。”

In a

在一个

related paper in

相关论文在

Cell

细胞

, meanwhile, Ji, along with Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Director Svante Pääbo and other investigators in China and the US, backed up the proteomic findings by using targeted enrichment sequencing to analyze mtDNA sequences isolated from the Harbin individual's 146,000-year-old calcified dental plaque, or 'dental calculus,' samples in relation to published mtDNA reference sequences from present-day or ancestral humans..

同时，纪博士与马克斯·普朗克进化人类学研究所所长斯万特·帕博以及其他在中国和美国的研究人员一起，通过使用靶向富集测序分析了来自哈尔滨个体的14.6万年前钙化牙菌斑（或称“牙石”）样本中的线粒体DNA序列，并将其与已发表的现代或祖先人类的线粒体DNA参考序列进行了比对，从而验证了蛋白质组学的发现。

'Although no DNA could be retrieved from a tooth or the petrous bone, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could be isolated from dental calculus,' the authors explained, noting that this mtDNA 'falls within Denisovan mtDNA variation and is related to an mtDNA branch carried by early Denisovan individuals in southern Siberia, previously observed in a Denisova Cave.'.

“尽管无法从牙齿或颞骨中提取DNA，但可以从牙结石中分离出线粒体DNA（mtDNA），”作者解释道，并指出该mtDNA“属于丹尼索瓦人mtDNA的变异范围内，并且与南西伯利亚早期丹尼索瓦人携带的mtDNA分支相关，此前在丹尼索瓦洞穴中曾观察到。”

Together with follow-up phylogenetic analyses, the mtDNA comparisons shored up the Harbin individual-Denisovan relationship proposed in the proteomic study, placing the Harbin individual in a branch of the Denisovan family tree that split from Early Denisovans after the divergence between the ancestors of Early- and Late Denisovans..

结合后续的系统发育分析，线粒体DNA比较支持了蛋白质组学研究中提出的哈尔滨个体-丹尼索瓦人关系，将哈尔滨个体置于丹尼索瓦家族树的一个分支中，该分支在早期丹尼索瓦人和晚期丹尼索瓦人的祖先分化之后从早期丹尼索瓦人分离出来。

'The finding that the Harbin cranium contains Denisovan mtDNA connects Denisovans with morphological traits and will help to identify other specimens as Denisovans, especially when ancient DNA is not preserved or difficult to obtain,' the authors suggested.

“哈尔滨颅骨含有丹尼索瓦线粒体DNA的发现将丹尼索瓦人与形态特征联系起来，并有助于鉴别其他丹尼索瓦人标本，特别是当古代DNA未被保存或难以获取时，”作者建议。

'To enhance our understanding of the genetic relationships of Middle Pleistocene hominins, data from nuclear DNA will need to be retrieved from fossils from across East and Southeast Asia,' they added. 'Nevertheless, the finding that the human DNA of the Harbin specimen is better preserved in the dental calculus than in dense bones, including the petrous bone, suggests that dental calculus may be a valuable source for investigating DNA in Middle Pleistocene hominins.'.

他们补充道：“为了加深我们对中更新世古人类遗传关系的理解，需要从东亚和东南亚各地的化石中提取核DNA数据。然而，发现哈尔滨样本的人类DNA在牙结石中的保存程度比包括颞骨岩部在内的致密骨骼中更好，这表明牙结石可能是研究中更新世古人类DNA的宝贵来源。”