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Fast-evolving genomic regions underlie human brain development

Regions of the human genome that evolved rapidly after the separation between hominins and chimpanzees have now been charted. They contain genomic elements that are unique to humans and are linked to neurodevelopment and disease.
  1. Eucharist Kun

    1. Eucharist Kun is in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.

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  2. Vagheesh M. Narasimhan

    1. Vagheesh M. Narasimhan is in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.

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What are the genetic changes that separate humans from chimpanzees? The discovery that there is little difference between these species in terms of protein-coding DNA sequences has led to the hypothesis that the genomic changes responsible for human-specific traits are mainly evident in the non-protein-coding region of the genome1. Writing in Cell, Mangan et al.2 report that the most rapidly evolving of these non-coding regions are related to human-specific neurodevelopment and disease. The work provides insights into how we differ from our great-ape ancestors.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00069-2

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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