Bernhard Zipfel

University Curator of Fossil and Rock Collections

Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African Paranthropus.


Journal article


Palesa P. Madupe, Claire Koenig, Ioannis Patramanis, Patrick Rüther, Nomawethu Hlazo, M. Mackie, Mirriam Tawane, Johanna Krueger, A. J. Taurozzi, Gaudry Troché, J. Kibii, R. Pickering, M. Dickinson, Yonatan Sahle, Dipuo Kgotleng, Charles Musiba, F. Manthi, L. Bell, Michelle DuPlessis, Catherine Gilbert, Bernhard Zipfel, L. Kuderna, Esther Lizano, F. Welker, Pelagia Kyriakidou, Jürgen Cox, Catherine Mollereau, C. Tokarski, Jonathan M. Blackburn, Jazmín Ramos‐Madrigal, Tomàs Marquès-Bonet, K. Penkman, C. Zanolli, Lauren Schroeder, F. Racimo, J. Olsen, R. Ackermann, Enrico Cappellini
Science, 2025

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APA   Click to copy
Madupe, P. P., Koenig, C., Patramanis, I., Rüther, P., Hlazo, N., Mackie, M., … Cappellini, E. (2025). Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African Paranthropus. Science.


Chicago/Turabian   Click to copy
Madupe, Palesa P., Claire Koenig, Ioannis Patramanis, Patrick Rüther, Nomawethu Hlazo, M. Mackie, Mirriam Tawane, et al. “Enamel Proteins Reveal Biological Sex and Genetic Variability in Southern African Paranthropus.” Science (2025).


MLA   Click to copy
Madupe, Palesa P., et al. “Enamel Proteins Reveal Biological Sex and Genetic Variability in Southern African Paranthropus.” Science, 2025.


BibTeX   Click to copy

@article{palesa2025a,
  title = {Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African Paranthropus.},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {Science},
  author = {Madupe, Palesa P. and Koenig, Claire and Patramanis, Ioannis and Rüther, Patrick and Hlazo, Nomawethu and Mackie, M. and Tawane, Mirriam and Krueger, Johanna and Taurozzi, A. J. and Troché, Gaudry and Kibii, J. and Pickering, R. and Dickinson, M. and Sahle, Yonatan and Kgotleng, Dipuo and Musiba, Charles and Manthi, F. and Bell, L. and DuPlessis, Michelle and Gilbert, Catherine and Zipfel, Bernhard and Kuderna, L. and Lizano, Esther and Welker, F. and Kyriakidou, Pelagia and Cox, Jürgen and Mollereau, Catherine and Tokarski, C. and Blackburn, Jonathan M. and Ramos‐Madrigal, Jazmín and Marquès-Bonet, Tomàs and Penkman, K. and Zanolli, C. and Schroeder, Lauren and Racimo, F. and Olsen, J. and Ackermann, R. and Cappellini, Enrico}
}

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.


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