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REGULATORY EVOLUTION

Functional divergence among hominins

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, pages 1507–1508 (2019)Cite this article

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Inferred gene expression differences between modern humans and our extinct archaic relatives suggest potential mechanistic bases for the evolution of hominin phenotypes.

What does it mean to be human? Addressing this question from a genetic perspective involves comparing our genomes to those of our closest evolutionary relatives — including those now extinct. Sequencing of the Neanderthal genome, approximately one decade ago1, raised expectations about uncovering the key genetic changes contributing to modern human-specific traits. While the field of functional genomics has since advanced in leaps and bounds, the functional genomic basis of hominin phenotypic divergence has remained elusive. Rapid degradation of RNA represents one contributing barrier, as it prevents most direct functional assays of archaic hominin remains. Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Colbran et al.2 report a creative strategy for inferring patterns of regulatory divergence from archaic hominin genome sequences alone. Bypassing the need for intact RNA, the authors predicted divergent regulation of hundreds of genes that may in turn mediate divergence of organismal phenotypes.

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Fig. 1: Inferring archaic gene expression from genomic data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Stephanie M. Yan & Rajiv C. McCoy

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  1. Stephanie M. Yan
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  2. Rajiv C. McCoy
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Correspondence to Rajiv C. McCoy.

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Yan, S.M., McCoy, R.C. Functional divergence among hominins. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1507–1508 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0995-y

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