Ayta Magbukon with highest Denisovan DNA in the world

Updated: Nov 14, 2021

FROM BACK THEN. Those who are Ayta Magbukon have been found to have some DNA from ancient hominids. ©NCIP

Researchers Maximilian Larena and Mattias Jakobsson of Uppsala University in Sweden discovered on Aug. 12 that the Ayta Magbukon ethnic group has the greatest level of DNA originating from Denisovans, an extinct human subspecies.

Denisovans are a mysterious species only known from ancient DNA samples and traces of that DNA shared by ancient hominids and Homo sapiens during interbreeding; those currently living in Southeast Asian islands, Papua New Guinea, and Australia bear the brunt of their genetic mark.

Papua New Guinea highlanders were previously assumed to be the modern record-holders for Denisovan descent, with close to 4% Denisovan DNA found; Larena and Jakobsson’s data found that the Ayta Magbukon have 30 to 40% more Denisovan ancestry than Papua New Guinea highlanders and Indigenous Australians.

This computation takes into account recent matings of East Asians with Philippine Negrito groups, such as the Ayta Magbukon, which have diluted Denisovan ancestry in various ways.

Researchers have been able to assess the contribution of Denisovan DNA to the genomes of modern people due to computational analysis of the genome discovered in Siberia.

The new discovery coincides with the recent discovery in Luzon regarding the remains of another previously unidentified extinct human species, Homo luzonensis.