Adaptive introgression of Denisovan HLA alleles across Asia?

John Hawks:

If it turns out that we have widespread adaptive introgression in Asia today from Denisovans, that will change the game of studying the origins of these populations. Based on the genome-wide comparison, it looks like the genetic interaction that led to the habitation of Asia did not involve Denisovans, who contributed only to populations at the most eastern extreme of habitation in island Southeast Asia. But the only Denisovans we know about lived near the geographic center of the Asian landmass, not at the extreme southeastern extreme.

The HLA pattern may suggest a more widespread pattern of mixture across Asia, which was later overwritten by population movements of people who didn't have Denisovan ancestry. That means that the habitation of Asia was a process of successive migrations and replacements, which imperfectly covered up the evidence of archaic intermixture. The genes that remain as signs of this intermixture are those that had selective advantages in later populations.

The paper: The Shaping of Modern Human Immune Systems by Multiregional Admixture with Archaic Humans