Gene study shows chimps more diverse than humans

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They may all be black and hairy and they may all eat and act in much the same way, but chimpanzees from different parts of Africa are genetically more diverse than all of humanity, researchers reported on Friday.

Experts have long marveled that older ideas of race are not reflected in human DNA. Genetic diversity is more pronounced within population groups than between them, with only a few gene differences accounting for the wide variations seen in eye, skin and hair color across humanity.

So animals all about the same size and color and showing few behavioral differences must be even more genetically identical, right?

Wrong, says Molly Przeworski, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago.

Her team looked at the DNA of the three designated populations of chimpanzees in Africa -- the eastern, western and central populations, designated by some researchers as sub-species of the chimpanzee.

They found that a western chimpanzee has more differences, genetically, from an eastern chimp than any one human being has from another.

"It is the first genetic confirmation that they are distinct populations," Przeworski said in a telephone interview. "I stay away from the word 'subspecies'."

The study, done with experts at the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Arizona State University, is interesting in its own right, but also sheds light on human origins, Przeworski said.