On May 29, 2024, a team of researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health announced they had generated the first complete chromosome sequences from non-human primates.

Published in Nature(link is external), these sequences uncover remarkable variation between the Y chromosomes of different species, showing rapid evolution, in addition to revealing previously unstudied regions of great ape genomes. Since these primate species are the closest living relatives to humans, the new sequences can provide insights into human evolution.