Differences in gene expression are thought to account for most phenotypic differences within and between species. Consequently, gene expression is a powerful lens through which to study divergence between modern humans and our closest evolutionary relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans. Such insights complement biological knowledge gleaned from the fossil record, while also revealing general features of the mode and tempo of regulatory evolution. Because of the degradation of ancient RNA, gene expression profiles of archaic hominins must be studied by indirect means. As such, conclusions drawn from these studies are often laden with assumptions about the genetic architecture of gene expression, the complexity of which is increasingly apparent. Despite these challenges, rapid technical and conceptual advances in the fields of ancient genomics, functional genomics, statistical genomics, and genome engineering are revolutionizing understanding of hominin gene expression evolution.

中文翻译：

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古老的人类基因组学为基因表达进化提供了一个窗口。

基因表达的差异被认为是物种内和物种之间的大多数表型差异的原因。因此，基因表达是研究现代人类与我们最亲近的进化亲属尼安德特人和丹尼索瓦人之间差异的有力镜头。这些见解补充了从化石记录中收集的生物学知识，同时也揭示了监管进化模式和节奏的一般特征。由于古代 RNA 的降解，必须通过间接方式研究古代人类的基因表达谱。因此，从这些研究中得出的结论往往充满了关于基因表达的遗传结构的假设，其复杂性越来越明显。尽管存在这些挑战，古代基因组学领域的快速技术和概念进步，