Researchers have sequenced the genome of an archaic Siberian
girl 31 times over, using a new method that amplifies single strands of DNA. As
the team reports online in Science this week, more than 99% of the nucleotides
are sequenced at least 10 times, so researchers have as sharp a picture of this
ancient genome as of a living person's. That precision allows the team to
compare the nuclear genome of this girl, who lived in Siberia's Denisova Cave
more than 50,000 years ago, directly to the genomes of living people, producing
a "near-complete" catalog of the small number of genetic changes that
make us different from the Denisovans, who were close relatives of Neandertals.