Article detail · 2011
MicroRNA Driven Developmental Remodeling in the Brain Distinguishes Humans from Other Primates
- Year
- 2011
- Type
- article
Data source split
- YÖKSİS YÖKSİS article record
- YÖKSİS venue PLoS Biology
- Catalog match (ISSN) PLOS Biology
- OpenAlex OpenAlex enrichment (abstract, citations, topics)
Abstract
OpenAlex · English
While multiple studies have reported the accelerated evolution of brain gene expression in the human lineage, the mechanisms underlying such changes are unknown. Here, we address this issue from a developmental perspective, by analyzing mRNA and microRNA (miRNA) expression in two brain regions within macaques, chimpanzees, and humans throughout their lifespan. We find that constitutive gene expression divergence (species differences independent of age) is comparable between humans and chimpanzees. However, humans display a 3-5 times faster evolutionary rate in divergence of developmental patterns, compared to chimpanzees. Such accelerated evolution of human brain developmental patterns (i) cannot be explained by life-history changes among species, (ii) is twice as pronounced in the prefrontal cortex than the cerebellum, (iii) preferentially affects neuron-related genes, and (iv) unlike constitutive divergence does not depend on cis-regulatory changes, but might be driven by human-specific changes in expression of trans-acting regulators. We show that developmental profiles of miRNAs, as well as their target genes, show the fastest rates of human-specific evolutionary change, and using a combination of computational and experimental methods, we identify miR-92a, miR-454, and miR-320b as possible regulators of human-specific neural development. Our results suggest that different mechanisms underlie adaptive and neutral transcriptome divergence, and that changes in the expression of a few key regulators may have been a major driving force behind rapid evolution of the human brain.
Topics
Citations
OpenAlex cited_by_count. Not a WoS or Scopus citation count; those sources have no separate column here.
238 citations
OpenAlex cited_by_count (cache / database)
9 publications in the local catalog that cite this work (OpenAlex reference match; not the full global list).
- A High Coverage Genome Sequence from an Archaic Denisovan Individual 2012
- Extension of cortical synaptic development distinguishes humans from chimpanzees and macaques 2012
- Human brain evolution transcripts metabolites and their regulators 2013
- Disruption of an Evolutionarily Novel Synaptic Expression Pattern in Autism 2016
- Gene expression-based drug repurposing to target aging 2018
- Gene expression reversal toward pre-adult levels in the aging human brain and age-related loss of cellular identity 2017
- Gene expression reversal toward pre-adult levels in the aging human brain and age-related loss of cellular identity 2017
- Gene expression reversal toward pre-adult levels in the aging human brain and age-related loss of cellular identity 2017
- Transcriptomic insights into human brain evolution acceleration neutrality heterochrony 2014