Chimpanzees are far more genetically diverse than human beings are, researchers said on Thursday, a finding that has implications both for efforts to conserve endangered chimps and for learning more about human origins. The simplest explanation for this is that at some rather recent point in the past, humans have been few in numbers. From a genetic point of view, this point could be the origin of modern humans.
All animals have unique variations in genes from individual to individual.
This variation can be meaningless, or can make the difference in, for instance, susceptibility to disease. Writing in the journal Science, Kaessmann's team said they examined genes from the three recognised subspecies of chimps - central African chimpanzees, western African chimpanzees and Eastern African chimpanzees. They also looked at bonobos, commonly known as dwarf chimpanzees. They looked at one gene called Xq13.3, which is found on the X chromosome, one of the two chromosomes related to sex. It has no known function, but it is known to have a low mutation rate and has been well studied in people.