GEPHE SUMMARY Print
Gephebase Gene
Entry Status
Published
GepheID
GP00000384
Main curator
Martin
PHENOTYPIC CHANGE
Trait Category
Trait State in Taxon A
Homo sapiens
Trait State in Taxon B
Pan troglodytes
Ancestral State
Taxon A
Taxonomic Status
Taxon A
Latin Name
Common Name
human
Synonyms
human; man; Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758; Home sapiens; Homo sampiens; Homo sapeins; Homo sapian; Homo sapians; Homo sapien; Homo sapience; Homo sapiense; Homo sapients; Homo sapines; Homo spaiens; Homo spiens; Humo sapiens
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... opterygii; Dipnotetrapodomorpha; Tetrapoda; Amniota; Mammalia; Theria; Eutheria; Boreoeutheria; Euarchontoglires; Primates; Haplorrhini; Simiiformes; Catarrhini; Hominoidea; Hominidae; Homininae; Homo
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon A an Infraspecies?
No
Taxon B
Common Name
chimpanzee
Synonyms
chimpanzee; Chimpansee troglodytes
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... copterygii; Dipnotetrapodomorpha; Tetrapoda; Amniota; Mammalia; Theria; Eutheria; Boreoeutheria; Euarchontoglires; Primates; Haplorrhini; Simiiformes; Catarrhini; Hominoidea; Hominidae; Homininae; Pan
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon B an Infraspecies?
No
GENOTYPIC CHANGE
Presumptive Null
No
Molecular Type
Aberration Type
Deletion Size
10-100 kb
Molecular Details of the Mutation
Enhancer loss
Experimental Evidence
Authors
McLean CY; Reno PL; Pollen AA; Bassan AI; Capellini TD; Guenther C; Indjeian VB; Lim X; et al. ... show more
Abstract
Humans differ from other animals in many aspects of anatomy, physiology, and behaviour; however, the genotypic basis of most human-specific traits remains unknown. Recent whole-genome comparisons have made it possible to identify genes with elevated rates of amino acid change or divergent expression in humans, and non-coding sequences with accelerated base pair changes. Regulatory alterations may be particularly likely to produce phenotypic effects while preserving viability, and are known to underlie interesting evolutionary differences in other species. Here we identify molecular events particularly likely to produce significant regulatory changes in humans: complete deletion of sequences otherwise highly conserved between chimpanzees and other mammals. We confirm 510 such deletions in humans, which fall almost exclusively in non-coding regions and are enriched near genes involved in steroid hormone signalling and neural function. One deletion removes a sensory vibrissae and penile spine enhancer from the human androgen receptor (AR) gene, a molecular change correlated with anatomical loss of androgen-dependent sensory vibrissae and penile spines in the human lineage. Another deletion removes a forebrain subventricular zone enhancer near the tumour suppressor gene growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible, gamma (GADD45G), a loss correlated with expansion of specific brain regions in humans. Deletions of tissue-specific enhancers may thus accompany both loss and gain traits in the human lineage, and provide specific examples of the kinds of regulatory alterations and inactivation events long proposed to have an important role in human evolutionary divergence.
Additional References
RELATED GEPHE
Related Genes
No matches found.
Related Haplotypes
No matches found.
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