Genes don't explain what made humans different

"Tiny genetic variations between humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans might not be all they were cracked up to be."

"What made humans behave differently to their closest relatives? Researchers have long sought an answer in a handful of genetic differences between Homo sapiens and our close relatives the Neanderthals and Denisovans - but a new study suggests that some of those differences might not be so notable after all."

Some genetic differences previously labeled as uniquely human are found in Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes or arise from contamination and sequencing artifacts. Reassessment of variant calls and allele frequencies reduces the number of confidently human-specific changes. Functional links between a few variants and cognitive or behavioral traits lose robustness when timing, regulatory context, and replication are reconsidered. Behavioral divergence between hominins therefore appears less driven by a small set of discrete mutations and more by complex combinations of many variants, regulatory evolution, epigenetic effects, developmental trajectories, and cultural and environmental influences.

Read at Nature