Researchers at Yale University and the Broad Institute found that the loss of about 10,000 pieces of genetic information separates humans from our closest primate relatives. These conserved deletions linked to cognitive function and brain cell formation represent an evolutionary advantage, altering the function of our genes and potentially contributing to our uniquely human traits.
What’s missing from the human genome compared to the genomes of other primates may be just as important to human development as what’s been added throughout our evolutionary history, according to a new study led by researchers from Yale University and the MIT Broad institute. Harvard.
New discoveries recently published in the journal Science fills an important gap in what is known about historical changes in the human genome. While the revolution in the ability to collect data from the genomes of different species has allowed scientists to identify insertions specific to the human genome (for example, a gene critical for the development of humans’ speech ability), it has received less attention. paid for what was missing in the human genome.
In a new study, researchers used an even deeper genomic dive into primate DNA, showing that the loss of roughly 10,000 bits of genetic information (mostly a few DNA base pairs) over our evolutionary history distinguishes humans from chimpanzees. Our closest primate relative. Some of these “deleted” bits of genetic information are closely associated with genes involved in neural and cognitive functions, including those involved in cell formation in the developing brain.
The Yale team found that these 10,000 missing pieces of DNA found in the genomes of other mammals are common to all humans. The persistence of these genetic deletions in all humans demonstrates their evolutionary importance and suggests that they confer some biological advantage, according to the authors.
“We often think that new biological functions require new pieces of DNA, but this study shows us that erasing the genetic code can have profound consequences on the traits that make us unique as a species,” said Stephen Reilly, assistant professor of genetics at Yale. schools of medicine and senior author of the article.
The article was one of several published in the journal. Science From the Zooonomia Project, an international research collaboration that catalogs the diversity of mammalian genomes by comparing the DNA sequences of 240 mammalian species in existence today.
In their study, the Yale team found that certain genetic sequences found in the genomes of many other mammalian species, from mice to whales, are lost in humans. But instead of disrupting human biology, they say, some of these deletions create new genetic encodings that remove elements that normally turn genes off.
Removing this genetic information has the equivalent effect of removing three characters from the word “not” — “not” — to form the new word “is”, Reilly said.
“[Такі видалення] “It could slightly change the meaning of human-making instructions, helping to explain our larger brains and more complex cognition.”
The researchers used a technology called Massively Parallel Reporter Assays (MPRA), which can simultaneously screen and measure thousands of genetic changes between species.
“These tools allow us to begin to identify many of the small molecular building blocks that make us unique as a species,” Reilly said. Said.
Source: Port Altele
