FLICKR, GREENFLAMES09
Scientists and philosophers alike have long grasped for the essence that makes humans human, and one answer lies in the brain. Specifically, human brains express genes in different patterns than those of related species, but what causes those changes is unknown. Comparing gene expression in three primate species—human, chimpanzee, and the rhesus macaque—across post-natal development, researchers, publishing today (December 6) in PLoS Biology, found that the most drastic expression changes are found in genes that are controlled at a distance by trans regulators, instead of locally by cis regulators.
“The authors here found a new explanation for how this evolution of the advanced human brain occurred at the molecular level,” said Henrik Kaessmann, who studies genomic evolution at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and ...
