Collecting Denisova ancestry tracts from human genomes across the globe

Admixture, as well as gene flow with now-extinct hominins like Neanderthals and Denisovans, has significantly shaped the patterns of genetic variation in modern humans. In this research, we used IBDmix approach, a unique probabilistic method for collecting putative introgressed hominin sequences. Unlike other methods, IBDmix does not rely on a contemporary reference population. We used IBDmix to find and examine putative Denisovan ancestry that are present in contemporary humans in a dataset of 744 individuals from East Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, America and Oceanian populations. Our results show a greater Denisovan ancestry signal among Oceanian. These findings support the previous studies.