在这项工作中，研究小组描述了大约200万年前的牙齿标本的牙釉质肽的质谱测序，这些牙齿标本在形态上属于南非Swartkrans遗址的P. robthemtthem。对AMELY特异性肽的鉴定使他们能够将两个标本分配给男性个体，而半定量质谱数据分析将其他两个标本归为女性个体。单氨基酸多态性和牙釉质-牙本质连接形状的变化表明南部非洲傍人类群中存在潜在的亚群。这项研究表明，古蛋白质组学可以帮助区分非洲早更新世古人类的性别二态性和其他类型的变异。
据介绍，类人猿（Paranthropthem robthemtthem）是一种形态上有充分证据的早更新世古人类，来自非洲南部，迄今尚无遗传证据报道。
附：英文原文
Title: Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African Paranthropus
Author: Palesa P. Madupe, Claire Koenig, Ioannis Patramanis, Patrick L. Rüther, Nomawethu Hlazo, Meaghan Mackie, Mirriam Tawane, Johanna Krueger, Alberto J. Taurozzi, Gaudry Troché, Job Kibii, Robyn Pickering, Marc R. Dickinson, Yonatan Sahle, Dipuo Kgotleng, Charles Musiba, Fredrick Manthi, Liam Bell, Michelle DuPlessis, Catherine Gilbert, Bernhard Zipfel, Lukas F. K. Kuderna, Esther Lizano, Frido Welker, Pelagia Kyriakidou, Jürgen Cox, Catherine Mollereau, Caroline Tokarski, Jonathan Blackburn, Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Kirsty Penkman, Clément Zanolli, Lauren Schroeder, Fernando Racimo, Jesper V. Olsen, Rebecca R. Ackermann, Enrico Cappellini
Issue&Volume: 2025-05-29
Abstract: Paranthropus robustus is a morphologically well-documented Early Pleistocene hominin species from southern Africa with no genetic evidence reported so far. In this work, we describe the mass spectrometric sequencing of enamel peptides from four ~2 million–year-old dental specimens attributed morphologically to P. robustus from the site of Swartkrans in South Africa. The identification of AMELY-specific peptides enabled us to assign two specimens to male individuals, whereas semiquantitative mass spectrometric data analysis attributed the other two to females. A single amino acid polymorphism and the enamel-dentine junction shape variation indicated potential subgroups present within southern African Paranthropus. This study demonstrates how palaeoproteomics can help distinguish sexual dimorphism from other sources of variation in African Early Pleistocene hominins.
DOI: adt9539
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt9539