TY - JOUR
T1 - Accelerated evolution of nervous system genes in the origin of Homo sapiens
AU - Dorus, Steve
AU - Vallender, Eric J.
AU - Evans, Patrick D.
AU - Anderson, Jeffrey R.
AU - Gilbert, Sandra L.
AU - Mahowald, Michael
AU - Wyckoff, Gerald J.
AU - Malcom, Christine M.
AU - Lahn, Bruce T.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are indebted to L.G. Chemnick and O.A. Ryder at the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES) of the Zoological Society of San Diego, S. Gibson at the Squirrel Monkey Breeding and Research Resource at the University of Southern Alabama, and U. Bass and H. McClure at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University for providing precious tissue samples. We are grateful to C. Abraczinskas, C. Field, and S. Gould for illustrations. This work was supported in part by the William Rainey Harper Fellowship (to S.D.) and the Searle Scholarship and the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award (to B.T.L.).
PY - 2004/12/29
Y1 - 2004/12/29
N2 - Human evolution is characterized by a dramatic increase in brain size and complexity. To probe its genetic basis, we examined the evolution of genes involved in diverse aspects of nervous system biology. We found that these genes display significantly higher rates of protein evolution in primates than in rodents. Importantly, this trend is most pronounced for the subset of genes implicated in nervous system development. Moreover, within primates, the acceleration of protein evolution is most prominent in the lineage leading from ancestral primates to humans. Thus, the remarkable phenotypic evolution of the human nervous system has a salient molecular correlate, i.e., accelerated evolution of the underlying genes, particularly those linked to nervous system development. In addition to uncovering broad evolutionary trends, our study also identified many candidate genes - most of which are implicated in regulating brain size and behavior - that might have played important roles in the evolution of the human brain.
AB - Human evolution is characterized by a dramatic increase in brain size and complexity. To probe its genetic basis, we examined the evolution of genes involved in diverse aspects of nervous system biology. We found that these genes display significantly higher rates of protein evolution in primates than in rodents. Importantly, this trend is most pronounced for the subset of genes implicated in nervous system development. Moreover, within primates, the acceleration of protein evolution is most prominent in the lineage leading from ancestral primates to humans. Thus, the remarkable phenotypic evolution of the human nervous system has a salient molecular correlate, i.e., accelerated evolution of the underlying genes, particularly those linked to nervous system development. In addition to uncovering broad evolutionary trends, our study also identified many candidate genes - most of which are implicated in regulating brain size and behavior - that might have played important roles in the evolution of the human brain.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cell.2004.11.040
DO - 10.1016/j.cell.2004.11.040
M3 - Article
C2 - 15620360
AN - SCOPUS:11144331051
SN - 0092-8674
VL - 119
SP - 1027
EP - 1040
JO - Cell
JF - Cell
IS - 7
ER -