DNA Study of First Ancient African Genome Flawed, Researchers Report
True science is often about finding errors, mistakes, and bad data and correcting it.
As it turns out, the data produced by the program used to map Mota’s DNA came in a format that had to be tweaked before the scientists used a second program to compare it with other genomes. In the Mota study, no one did the tweaking.
That little oversight had a big impact. Dr. Manica and his colleagues unknowingly ignored some spots in the genome where Mota’s DNA was identical to that of Eurasians. As a result, Mota appeared not to be as closely related to Eurasians as he really was.
The mistake also created the false impression that many Africans outside of East Africa shared a lot of genes with Eurasians, DNA not found in Mota’s genome.
Dr. Manica and his colleagues last week posted a statement about the error, which was first reported in the journal Nature. They have asked Science, where their study appeared, to publish an erratum, and the journal is considering it.
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