1
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Moriano J, Leonardi O, Vitriolo A, Testa G, Boeckx C. A multi-layered integrative analysis reveals a cholesterol metabolic program in outer radial glia with implications for human brain evolution. Development 2024; 151:dev202390. [PMID: 39114968 DOI: 10.1242/dev.202390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/28/2024]
Abstract
The definition of molecular and cellular mechanisms contributing to brain ontogenetic trajectories is essential to investigate the evolution of our species. Yet their functional dissection at an appropriate level of granularity remains challenging. Capitalizing on recent efforts that have extensively profiled neural stem cells from the developing human cortex, we develop an integrative computational framework to perform trajectory inference and gene regulatory network reconstruction, (pseudo)time-informed non-negative matrix factorization for learning the dynamics of gene expression programs, and paleogenomic analysis for a higher-resolution mapping of derived regulatory variants in our species in comparison with our closest relatives. We provide evidence for cell type-specific regulation of gene expression programs during indirect neurogenesis. In particular, our analysis uncovers a key role for a cholesterol program in outer radial glia, regulated by zinc-finger transcription factor KLF6. A cartography of the regulatory landscape impacted by Homo sapiens-derived variants reveals signals of selection clustering around regulatory regions associated with GLI3, a well-known regulator of radial glial cell cycle, and impacting KLF6 regulation. Our study contributes to the evidence of significant changes in metabolic pathways in recent human brain evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Moriano
- Department of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Alessandro Vitriolo
- Human Technopole, Viale Rita Levi-Montalcini 1, 20157 Milan, Italy
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Via Santa Sofia 9, 20122 Milan, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Testa
- Human Technopole, Viale Rita Levi-Montalcini 1, 20157 Milan, Italy
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Via Santa Sofia 9, 20122 Milan, Italy
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Department of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Neurosciences, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08007 Barcelona, Spain
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2
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Funato N, Heliövaara A, Boeckx C. A regulatory variant impacting TBX1 expression contributes to basicranial morphology in Homo sapiens. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:939-953. [PMID: 38608674 PMCID: PMC11080286 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2024] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Changes in gene regulatory elements play critical roles in human phenotypic divergence. However, identifying the base-pair changes responsible for the distinctive morphology of Homo sapiens remains challenging. Here, we report a noncoding single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs41298798, as a potential causal variant contributing to the morphology of the skull base and vertebral structures found in Homo sapiens. Screening for differentially regulated genes between Homo sapiens and extinct relatives revealed 13 candidate genes associated with basicranial development, with TBX1, implicated in DiGeorge syndrome, playing a pivotal role. Epigenetic markers and in silico analyses prioritized rs41298798 within a TBX1 intron for functional validation. CRISPR editing revealed that the 41-base-pair region surrounding rs41298798 modulates gene expression at 22q11.21. The derived allele of rs41298798 acts as an allele-specific enhancer mediated by E2F1, resulting in increased TBX1 expression levels compared to the ancestral allele. Tbx1-knockout mice exhibited skull base and vertebral abnormalities similar to those seen in DiGeorge syndrome. Phenotypic differences associated with TBX1 deficiency are observed between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). In conclusion, the regulatory divergence of TBX1 contributes to the formation of skull base and vertebral structures found in Homo sapiens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noriko Funato
- Department of Signal Gene Regulation, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), Yushima 1-5-45, Bunkyo-ku 113-8510, Tokyo, Japan; Research Core, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU), Yushima 1-5-45, Bunkyo-ku 113-8510, Tokyo, Japan.
| | - Arja Heliövaara
- Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Center, Department of Plastic Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital and Helsinki University, Stenbäckinkatu 11, P.O. Box 281, Helsinki FI-00029 HUS, Finland
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (ICREA), Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain; Section of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute for Complex Systems, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute of Neurosciences, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
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3
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Carrión-Castillo A, Boeckx C. Insights into the genetic architecture of cerebellar lobules derived from the UK Biobank. Sci Rep 2024; 14:9488. [PMID: 38664414 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-59699-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 06/19/2024] Open
Abstract
In this work we endeavor to further understand the genetic architecture of the cerebellum by examining the genetic underpinnings of the different cerebellar lob(ul)es, identifying their genetic relation to cortical and subcortical regions, as well as to psychiatric disorders, as well as traces of their evolutionary trajectories. We confirm the moderate heritability of cerebellar volumes, and reveal genetic clustering and variability across their different substructures, which warranted a detailed analysis using this higher structural resolution. We replicated known genetic correlations with several subcortical volumes, and report new cortico-cerebellar genetic correlations, including negative genetic correlations between anterior cerebellar lobules and cingulate, and positive ones between lateral Crus I and lobule VI with cortical measures in the fusiform region. Heritability partitioning for evolutionary annotations highlighted that the vermis of Crus II has depleted heritability in genomic regions of "archaic introgression deserts", but no enrichment/depletion of heritability in any other cerebellar regions. Taken together, these findings reveal novel insights into the genetic underpinnings of the different cerebellar lobules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amaia Carrión-Castillo
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
- Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain.
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain.
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Neurosciences, Barcelona, Spain.
- Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.
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4
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Guo B, Borda V, Laboulaye R, Spring MD, Wojnarski M, Vesely BA, Silva JC, Waters NC, O'Connor TD, Takala-Harrison S. Strong positive selection biases identity-by-descent-based inferences of recent demography and population structure in Plasmodium falciparum. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2499. [PMID: 38509066 PMCID: PMC10954658 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46659-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Malaria genomic surveillance often estimates parasite genetic relatedness using metrics such as Identity-By-Decent (IBD), yet strong positive selection stemming from antimalarial drug resistance or other interventions may bias IBD-based estimates. In this study, we use simulations, a true IBD inference algorithm, and empirical data sets from different malaria transmission settings to investigate the extent of this bias and explore potential correction strategies. We analyze whole genome sequence data generated from 640 new and 3089 publicly available Plasmodium falciparum clinical isolates. We demonstrate that positive selection distorts IBD distributions, leading to underestimated effective population size and blurred population structure. Additionally, we discover that the removal of IBD peak regions partially restores the accuracy of IBD-based inferences, with this effect contingent on the population's background genetic relatedness and extent of inbreeding. Consequently, we advocate for selection correction for parasite populations undergoing strong, recent positive selection, particularly in high malaria transmission settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bing Guo
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Victor Borda
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Roland Laboulaye
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Michele D Spring
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Mariusz Wojnarski
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Brian A Vesely
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Joana C Silva
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (NOVA), Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Norman C Waters
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Timothy D O'Connor
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
| | - Shannon Takala-Harrison
- Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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5
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Peyrégne S, Slon V, Kelso J. More than a decade of genetic research on the Denisovans. Nat Rev Genet 2024; 25:83-103. [PMID: 37723347 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-023-00643-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
Denisovans, a group of now extinct humans who lived in Eastern Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene, were first identified from DNA sequences just over a decade ago. Only ten fragmentary remains from two sites have been attributed to Denisovans based entirely on molecular information. Nevertheless, there has been great interest in using genetic data to understand Denisovans and their place in human history. From the reconstruction of a single high-quality genome, it has been possible to infer their population history, including events of admixture with other human groups. Additionally, the identification of Denisovan DNA in the genomes of present-day individuals has provided insights into the timing and routes of dispersal of ancient modern humans into Asia and Oceania, as well as the contributions of archaic DNA to the physiology of present-day people. In this Review, we synthesize more than a decade of research on Denisovans, reconcile controversies and summarize insights into their population history and phenotype. We also highlight how our growing knowledge about Denisovans has provided insights into our own evolutionary history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Viviane Slon
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- The Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
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6
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Alagöz G, Eising E, Mekki Y, Bignardi G, Fontanillas P, Nivard MG, Luciano M, Cox NJ, Fisher SE, Gordon RL. The shared genetic architecture and evolution of human language and musical rhythm. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.01.564908. [PMID: 37961248 PMCID: PMC10634981 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.01.564908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Rhythm and language-related traits are phenotypically correlated, but their genetic overlap is largely unknown. Here, we leveraged two large-scale genome-wide association studies performed to shed light on the shared genetics of rhythm (N=606,825) and dyslexia (N=1,138,870). Our results reveal an intricate shared genetic and neurobiological architecture, and lay groundwork for resolving longstanding debates about the potential co-evolution of human language and musical traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gökberk Alagöz
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Else Eising
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Yasmina Mekki
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Giacomo Bignardi
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Michel G Nivard
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Michelle Luciano
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Nancy J Cox
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Simon E Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- The Curb Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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7
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Kun E, Javan EM, Smith O, Gulamali F, de la Fuente J, Flynn BI, Vajrala K, Trutner Z, Jayakumar P, Tucker-Drob EM, Sohail M, Singh T, Narasimhan VM. The genetic architecture and evolution of the human skeletal form. Science 2023; 381:eadf8009. [PMID: 37471560 PMCID: PMC11075689 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf8009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
The human skeletal form underlies bipedalism, but the genetic basis of skeletal proportions (SPs) is not well characterized. We applied deep-learning models to 31,221 x-rays from the UK Biobank to extract a comprehensive set of SPs, which were associated with 145 independent loci genome-wide. Structural equation modeling suggested that limb proportions exhibited strong genetic sharing but were independent of width and torso proportions. Polygenic score analysis identified specific associations between osteoarthritis and hip and knee SPs. In contrast to other traits, SP loci were enriched in human accelerated regions and in regulatory elements of genes that are differentially expressed between humans and great apes. Combined, our work identifies specific genetic variants that affect the skeletal form and ties a major evolutionary facet of human anatomical change to pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eucharist Kun
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Emily M. Javan
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Olivia Smith
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Faris Gulamali
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Javier de la Fuente
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Brianna I. Flynn
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Kushal Vajrala
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Zoe Trutner
- Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Prakash Jayakumar
- Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | | | - Mashaal Sohail
- Centro de Ciencias Genómicas (CCG), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), 62209 Cuernavaca, Mexico
| | - Tarjinder Singh
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
- The New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Vagheesh M. Narasimhan
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
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8
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Guo B, Borda V, Laboulaye R, Spring MD, Wojnarski M, Vesely BA, Silva JC, Waters NC, O'Connor TD, Takala-Harrison S. Strong Positive Selection Biases Identity-By-Descent-Based Inferences of Recent Demography and Population Structure in Plasmodium falciparum. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.07.14.549114. [PMID: 37502843 PMCID: PMC10370022 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.14.549114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Malaria genomic surveillance often estimates parasite genetic relatedness using metrics such as Identity-By-Decent (IBD). Yet, strong positive selection stemming from antimalarial drug resistance or other interventions may bias IBD-based estimates. In this study, we utilized simulations, a true IBD inference algorithm, and empirical datasets from different malaria transmission settings to investigate the extent of such bias and explore potential correction strategies. We analyzed whole genome sequence data generated from 640 new and 4,026 publicly available Plasmodium falciparum clinical isolates. Our findings demonstrated that positive selection distorts IBD distributions, leading to underestimated effective population size and blurred population structure. Additionally, we discovered that the removal of IBD peak regions partially restored the accuracy of IBD-based inferences, with this effect contingent on the population's background genetic relatedness. Consequently, we advocate for selection correction for parasite populations undergoing strong, recent positive selection, particularly in high malaria transmission settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bing Guo
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA
| | - Victor Borda
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Roland Laboulaye
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Michele D Spring
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Mariusz Wojnarski
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Brian A Vesely
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Joana C Silva
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Norman C Waters
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Timothy D O'Connor
- Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Shannon Takala-Harrison
- Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA
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9
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Bracci AN, Dallmann A, Ding Q, Hubisz MJ, Caballero M, Koren A. The evolution of the human DNA replication timing program. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2213896120. [PMID: 36848554 PMCID: PMC10013799 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2213896120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 03/01/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA is replicated according to a defined spatiotemporal program that is linked to both gene regulation and genome stability. The evolutionary forces that have shaped replication timing programs in eukaryotic species are largely unknown. Here, we studied the molecular causes and consequences of replication timing evolution across 94 humans, 95 chimpanzees, and 23 rhesus macaques. Replication timing differences recapitulated the species' phylogenetic tree, suggesting continuous evolution of the DNA replication timing program in primates. Hundreds of genomic regions had significant replication timing variation between humans and chimpanzees, of which 66 showed advances in replication origin firing in humans, while 57 were delayed. Genes overlapping these regions displayed correlated changes in expression levels and chromatin structure. Many human-chimpanzee variants also exhibited interindividual replication timing variation, pointing to ongoing evolution of replication timing at these loci. Association of replication timing variation with genetic variation revealed that DNA sequence evolution can explain replication timing variation between species. Taken together, DNA replication timing shows substantial and ongoing evolution in the human lineage that is driven by sequence alterations and could impact regulatory evolution at specific genomic sites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexa N. Bracci
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853
| | - Anissa Dallmann
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853
| | - Qiliang Ding
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853
| | - Melissa J. Hubisz
- Bioinformatics Facility, Institute of Biotechnology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853
| | - Madison Caballero
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853
| | - Amnon Koren
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853
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10
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Yermakovich D, Pankratov V, Võsa U, Yunusbayev B, Dannemann M. Long-range regulatory effects of Neandertal DNA in modern humans. Genetics 2023; 223:6957427. [PMID: 36560850 PMCID: PMC9991505 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyac188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2022] [Revised: 10/13/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The admixture between modern humans and Neandertals has resulted in ∼2% of the genomes of present-day non-Africans being composed of Neandertal DNA. Introgressed Neandertal DNA has been demonstrated to significantly affect the transcriptomic landscape in people today and via this molecular mechanism influence phenotype variation as well. However, little is known about how much of that regulatory impact is mediated through long-range regulatory effects that have been shown to explain ∼20% of expression variation. Here we identified 60 transcription factors (TFs) with their top cis-eQTL SNP in GTEx being of Neandertal ancestry and predicted long-range Neandertal DNA-induced regulatory effects by screening for the predicted target genes of those TFs. We show that the TFs form a significantly connected protein-protein interaction network. Among them are JUN and PRDM5, two brain-expressed TFs that have their predicted target genes enriched in regions devoid of Neandertal DNA. Archaic cis-eQTLs for the 60 TFs include multiple candidates for local adaptation, some of which show significant allele frequency increases over the last ∼10,000 years. A large proportion of the cis-eQTL-associated archaic SNPs have additional associations with various immune traits, schizophrenia, blood cell type composition and anthropometric measures. Finally, we demonstrate that our results are consistent with those of Neandertal DNA-associated empirical trans-eQTLs. Our results suggest that Neandertal DNA significantly influences regulatory networks, that its regulatory reach goes beyond the 40% of genomic sequence it still covers in present-day non-Africans and that via the investigated mechanism Neandertal DNA influences the phenotypic variation in people today.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danat Yermakovich
- Centre for Genomics, Evolution and Medicine, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Vasili Pankratov
- Centre for Genomics, Evolution and Medicine, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Urmo Võsa
- Estonian Genome Centre, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Bayazit Yunusbayev
- Centre for Genomics, Evolution and Medicine, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
| | | | - Michael Dannemann
- Centre for Genomics, Evolution and Medicine, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
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11
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Kun E, Javan EM, Smith O, Gulamali F, de la Fuente J, Flynn BI, Vajrala K, Trutner Z, Jayakumar P, Tucker-Drob EM, Sohail M, Singh T, Narasimhan VM. The genetic architecture of the human skeletal form. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.01.03.521284. [PMID: 36712136 PMCID: PMC9881884 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.03.521284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
The human skeletal form underlies our ability to walk on two legs, but unlike standing height, the genetic basis of limb lengths and skeletal proportions is less well understood. Here we applied a deep learning model to 31,221 whole body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images from the UK Biobank (UKB) to extract 23 different image-derived phenotypes (IDPs) that include all long bone lengths as well as hip and shoulder width, which we analyzed while controlling for height. All skeletal proportions are highly heritable (∼40-50%), and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of these traits identified 179 independent loci, of which 102 loci were not associated with height. These loci are enriched in genes regulating skeletal development as well as associated with rare human skeletal diseases and abnormal mouse skeletal phenotypes. Genetic correlation and genomic structural equation modeling indicated that limb proportions exhibited strong genetic sharing but were genetically independent of width and torso proportions. Phenotypic and polygenic risk score analyses identified specific associations between osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and knee, the leading causes of adult disability in the United States, and skeletal proportions of the corresponding regions. We also found genomic evidence of evolutionary change in arm-to-leg and hip-width proportions in humans consistent with striking anatomical changes in these skeletal proportions in the hominin fossil record. In contrast to cardiovascular, auto-immune, metabolic, and other categories of traits, loci associated with these skeletal proportions are significantly enriched in human accelerated regions (HARs), and regulatory elements of genes differentially expressed through development between humans and the great apes. Taken together, our work validates the use of deep learning models on DXA images to identify novel and specific genetic variants affecting the human skeletal form and ties a major evolutionary facet of human anatomical change to pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eucharist Kun
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Emily M Javan
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Olivia Smith
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
| | | | | | - Brianna I Flynn
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Kushal Vajrala
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Zoe Trutner
- Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Prakash Jayakumar
- Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, The University of Texas at Austin
| | | | - Mashaal Sohail
- Centro de Ciencias Genómicas (CCG), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
| | - Tarjinder Singh
- The Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- The New York Genome Center
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University
| | - Vagheesh M Narasimhan
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, The University of Texas at Austin
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12
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Lemaitre H, Le Guen Y, Tilot AK, Stein JL, Philippe C, Mangin JF, Fisher SE, Frouin V. Genetic variations within human gained enhancer elements affect human brain sulcal morphology. Neuroimage 2023; 265:119773. [PMID: 36442731 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The expansion of the cerebral cortex is one of the most distinctive changes in the evolution of the human brain. Cortical expansion and related increases in cortical folding may have contributed to emergence of our capacities for high-order cognitive abilities. Molecular analysis of humans, archaic hominins, and non-human primates has allowed identification of chromosomal regions showing evolutionary changes at different points of our phylogenetic history. In this study, we assessed the contributions of genomic annotations spanning 30 million years to human sulcal morphology measured via MRI in more than 18,000 participants from the UK Biobank. We found that variation within brain-expressed human gained enhancers, regulatory genetic elements that emerged since our last common ancestor with Old World monkeys, explained more trait heritability than expected for the left and right calloso-marginal posterior fissures and the right central sulcus. Intriguingly, these are sulci that have been previously linked to the evolution of locomotion in primates and later on bipedalism in our hominin ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Herve Lemaitre
- Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, CNRS UMR 5293, Université de bordeaux, Centre Broca Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France.
| | - Yann Le Guen
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Amanda K Tilot
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Jason L Stein
- Department of Genetics and the UNC Neuroscience Center, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
| | - Cathy Philippe
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Jean-François Mangin
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Simon E Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Vincent Frouin
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Neurospin, Baobab UMR 9027, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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13
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Duński E, Pękowska A. Keeping the balance: Trade-offs between human brain evolution, autism, and schizophrenia. Front Genet 2022; 13:1009390. [DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1009390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The unique qualities of the human brain are a product of a complex evolutionary process. Evolution, famously described by François Jacob as a “tinkerer,” builds upon existing genetic elements by modifying and repurposing them for new functions. Genetic changes in DNA may lead to the emergence of new genes or cause altered gene expression patterns. Both gene and regulatory element mutations may lead to new functions. Yet, this process may lead to side-effects. An evolutionary trade-off occurs when an otherwise beneficial change, which is important for evolutionary success and is under strong positive selection, concurrently results in a detrimental change in another trait. Pleiotropy occurs when a gene affects multiple traits. Antagonistic pleiotropy is a phenomenon whereby a genetic variant leads to an increase in fitness at one life-stage or in a specific environment, but simultaneously decreases fitness in another respect. Therefore, it is conceivable that the molecular underpinnings of evolution of highly complex traits, including brain size or cognitive ability, under certain conditions could result in deleterious effects, which would increase the susceptibility to psychiatric or neurodevelopmental diseases. Here, we discuss possible trade-offs and antagonistic pleiotropies between evolutionary change in a gene sequence, dosage or activity and the susceptibility of individuals to autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. We present current knowledge about genes and alterations in gene regulatory landscapes, which have likely played a role in establishing human-specific traits and have been implicated in those diseases.
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14
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Doust C, Fontanillas P, Eising E, Gordon SD, Wang Z, Alagöz G, Molz B, Pourcain BS, Francks C, Marioni RE, Zhao J, Paracchini S, Talcott JB, Monaco AP, Stein JF, Gruen JR, Olson RK, Willcutt EG, DeFries JC, Pennington BF, Smith SD, Wright MJ, Martin NG, Auton A, Bates TC, Fisher SE, Luciano M. Discovery of 42 genome-wide significant loci associated with dyslexia. Nat Genet 2022; 54:1621-1629. [PMID: 36266505 PMCID: PMC9649434 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-022-01192-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Reading and writing are crucial life skills but roughly one in ten children are affected by dyslexia, which can persist into adulthood. Family studies of dyslexia suggest heritability up to 70%, yet few convincing genetic markers have been found. Here we performed a genome-wide association study of 51,800 adults self-reporting a dyslexia diagnosis and 1,087,070 controls and identified 42 independent genome-wide significant loci: 15 in genes linked to cognitive ability/educational attainment, and 27 new and potentially more specific to dyslexia. We validated 23 loci (13 new) in independent cohorts of Chinese and European ancestry. Genetic etiology of dyslexia was similar between sexes, and genetic covariance with many traits was found, including ambidexterity, but not neuroanatomical measures of language-related circuitry. Dyslexia polygenic scores explained up to 6% of variance in reading traits, and might in future contribute to earlier identification and remediation of dyslexia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Doust
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | | | - Else Eising
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Scott D Gordon
- Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Zhengjun Wang
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University and Shaanxi Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China
| | - Gökberk Alagöz
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Barbara Molz
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | | | | | - Beate St Pourcain
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Clyde Francks
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Riccardo E Marioni
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Jingjing Zhao
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University and Shaanxi Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China
| | | | - Joel B Talcott
- Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
| | | | - John F Stein
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
| | - Jeffrey R Gruen
- Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Richard K Olson
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Erik G Willcutt
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - John C DeFries
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | | | - Shelley D Smith
- Department of Neurological Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA
| | - Margaret J Wright
- Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Nicholas G Martin
- Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | | | - Timothy C Bates
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Simon E Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Michelle Luciano
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
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15
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Zug R, Uller T. Evolution and dysfunction of human cognitive and social traits: A transcriptional regulation perspective. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2022; 4:e43. [PMID: 37588924 PMCID: PMC10426018 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2022.42] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Revised: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary changes in brain and craniofacial development have endowed humans with unique cognitive and social skills, but also predisposed us to debilitating disorders in which these traits are disrupted. What are the developmental genetic underpinnings that connect the adaptive evolution of our cognition and sociality with the persistence of mental disorders with severe negative fitness effects? We argue that loss of function of genes involved in transcriptional regulation represents a crucial link between the evolution and dysfunction of human cognitive and social traits. The argument is based on the haploinsufficiency of many transcriptional regulator genes, which makes them particularly sensitive to loss-of-function mutations. We discuss how human brain and craniofacial traits evolved through partial loss of function (i.e. reduced expression) of these genes, a perspective compatible with the idea of human self-domestication. Moreover, we explain why selection against loss-of-function variants supports the view that mutation-selection-drift, rather than balancing selection, underlies the persistence of psychiatric disorders. Finally, we discuss testable predictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roman Zug
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Tobias Uller
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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16
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Peyrégne S, Kelso J, Peter BM, Pääbo S. The evolutionary history of human spindle genes includes back-and-forth gene flow with Neandertals. eLife 2022; 11:75464. [PMID: 35816093 PMCID: PMC9273211 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Proteins associated with the spindle apparatus, a cytoskeletal structure that ensures the proper segregation of chromosomes during cell division, experienced an unusual number of amino acid substitutions in modern humans after the split from the ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans. Here, we analyze the history of these substitutions and show that some of the genes in which they occur may have been targets of positive selection. We also find that the two changes in the kinetochore scaffold 1 (KNL1) protein, previously believed to be specific to modern humans, were present in some Neandertals. We show that the KNL1 gene of these Neandertals shared a common ancestor with present-day Africans about 200,000 years ago due to gene flow from the ancestors (or relatives) of modern humans into Neandertals. Subsequently, some non-Africans inherited this modern human-like gene variant from Neandertals, but none inherited the ancestral gene variants. These results add to the growing evidence of early contacts between modern humans and archaic groups in Eurasia and illustrate the intricate relationships among these groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin M Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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17
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Temporal mapping of derived high-frequency gene variants supports the mosaic nature of the evolution of Homo sapiens. Sci Rep 2022; 12:9937. [PMID: 35705575 PMCID: PMC9200848 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-13589-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Large-scale estimations of the time of emergence of variants are essential to examine hypotheses concerning human evolution with precision. Using an open repository of genetic variant age estimations, we offer here a temporal evaluation of various evolutionarily relevant datasets, such as Homo sapiens-specific variants, high-frequency variants found in genetic windows under positive selection, introgressed variants from extinct human species, as well as putative regulatory variants specific to various brain regions. We find a recurrent bimodal distribution of high-frequency variants, but also evidence for specific enrichments of gene categories in distinct time windows, pointing to different periods of phenotypic changes, resulting in a mosaic. With a temporal classification of genetic mutations in hand, we then applied a machine learning tool to predict what genes have changed more in certain time windows, and which tissues these genes may have impacted more. Overall, we provide a fine-grained temporal mapping of derived variants in Homo sapiens that helps to illuminate the intricate evolutionary history of our species.
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18
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Andirkó A, Boeckx C. Brain region-specific effects of nearly fixed sapiens-derived alleles. BMC Genom Data 2022; 23:36. [PMID: 35546225 PMCID: PMC9097168 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-022-01048-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The availability of high-coverage genomes of our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, and the emergence of large, tissue-specific databases of modern human genetic variation, offer the possibility of probing the effects of modern-derived alleles in specific tissues, such as the brain, and its specific regions. While previous research has explored the effects of introgressed variants in gene expression, the effects of Homo sapiens-specific gene expression variability are still understudied. Here we identify derived, Homo sapiens-specific high-frequency (≥90%) alleles that are associated with differential gene expression across 15 brain structures derived from the GTEx database. We show that regulation by these derived variants targets regions under positive selection more often than expected by chance, and that high-frequency derived alleles lie in functional categories related to transcriptional regulation. Our results highlight the role of these variants in gene regulation in specific regions like the cerebellum and pituitary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Andirkó
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. .,University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain. .,ICREA, Barcelona, Spain.
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19
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Bednarik RG, Saniotis A, Henneberg M. Auto-domestication hypothesis and the rise in mental disorders in modern humans. Med Hypotheses 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2022.110874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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20
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Buisan R, Moriano J, Andirkó A, Boeckx C. A Brain Region-Specific Expression Profile for Genes Within Large Introgression Deserts and Under Positive Selection in Homo sapiens. Front Cell Dev Biol 2022; 10:824740. [PMID: 35557944 PMCID: PMC9086289 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2022.824740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 04/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Analyses of ancient DNA from extinct hominins have provided unique insights into the complex evolutionary history of Homo sapiens, intricately related to that of the Neanderthals and the Denisovans as revealed by several instances of admixture events. These analyses have also allowed the identification of introgression deserts: genomic regions in our species that are depleted of "archaic" haplotypes. The presence of genes like FOXP2 in these deserts has been taken to be suggestive of brain-related functional differences between Homo species. Here, we seek a deeper characterization of these regions and the specific expression trajectories of genes within them, taking into account signals of positive selection in our lineage. Analyzing publicly available transcriptomic data from the human brain at different developmental stages, we found that structures outside the cerebral neocortex, in particular the cerebellum, the striatum and the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus show the most divergent transcriptomic profiles when considering genes within large introgression deserts and under positive selection.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Juan Moriano
- Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alejandro Andirkó
- Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
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21
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Quiver MH, Lachance J. Adaptive eQTLs reveal the evolutionary impacts of pleiotropy and tissue-specificity while contributing to health and disease. HGG ADVANCES 2022; 3:100083. [PMID: 35047867 PMCID: PMC8756519 DOI: 10.1016/j.xhgg.2021.100083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Large numbers of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) have recently been identified in humans, and many of these regulatory variants have large allele frequency differences between populations. Here, we conducted genome-wide scans of selection to identify adaptive eQTLs (i.e., eQTLs with large population branch statistics). We then tested if tissue pleiotropy affects whether eQTLs are more or less likely to be adaptive and identified tissues that have been key targets of positive selection during the last 100,000 years. Top adaptive eQTL outliers include rs1043809, rs66899053, and rs2814778 (a SNP that is associated with malaria resistance). We found that effect sizes of eQTLs were negatively correlated with population branch statistics and that adaptive eQTLs affect two-thirds as many tissues as do non-adaptive eQTLs. Because the tissue breadth of an eQTL can be viewed as a measure of pleiotropy, these results imply that pleiotropy inhibits adaptation. The proportion of eQTLs that are adaptive varies by tissue, and we found that eQTLs that regulate expression in testis, thyroid, blood, or sun-exposed skin are enriched for signatures of positive selection. By contrast, eQTLs that regulate expression in the cerebrum or female-specific tissues have a relative lack of adaptive outliers. Scans of selections also reveal that many adaptive eQTLs are closely linked to disease-associated loci. Taken together, our results indicate that eQTLs have played an important role in recent human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melanie H Quiver
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Joseph Lachance
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
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22
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Trigila AP, Pisciottano F, Franchini LF. Hearing loss genes reveal patterns of adaptive evolution at the coding and non-coding levels in mammals. BMC Biol 2021; 19:244. [PMID: 34784928 PMCID: PMC8594068 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-021-01170-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Mammals possess unique hearing capacities that differ significantly from those of the rest of the amniotes. In order to gain insights into the evolution of the mammalian inner ear, we aim to identify the set of genetic changes and the evolutionary forces that underlie this process. We hypothesize that genes that impair hearing when mutated in humans or in mice (hearing loss (HL) genes) must play important roles in the development and physiology of the inner ear and may have been targets of selective forces across the evolution of mammals. Additionally, we investigated if these HL genes underwent a human-specific evolutionary process that could underlie the evolution of phenotypic traits that characterize human hearing. Results We compiled a dataset of HL genes including non-syndromic deafness genes identified by genetic screenings in humans and mice. We found that many genes including those required for the normal function of the inner ear such as LOXHD1, TMC1, OTOF, CDH23, and PCDH15 show strong signatures of positive selection. We also found numerous noncoding accelerated regions in HL genes, and among them, we identified active transcriptional enhancers through functional enhancer assays in transgenic zebrafish. Conclusions Our results indicate that the key inner ear genes and regulatory regions underwent adaptive evolution in the basal branch of mammals and along the human-specific branch, suggesting that they could have played an important role in the functional remodeling of the cochlea. Altogether, our data suggest that morphological and functional evolution could be attained through molecular changes affecting both coding and noncoding regulatory regions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12915-021-01170-6.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anabella P Trigila
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular (INGEBI), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), C1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Francisco Pisciottano
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular (INGEBI), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), C1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Current address: Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (IBYME), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), C1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Lucía F Franchini
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular (INGEBI), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), C1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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23
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Levi G, de Lombares C, Giuliani C, Iannuzzi V, Aouci R, Garagnani P, Franceschi C, Grimaud-Hervé D, Narboux-Nême N. DLX5/6 GABAergic Expression Affects Social Vocalization: Implications for Human Evolution. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:4748-4764. [PMID: 34132815 PMCID: PMC8557472 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
DLX5 and DLX6 are two closely related transcription factors involved in brain development and in GABAergic differentiation. The DLX5/6 locus is regulated by FoxP2, a gene involved in language evolution and has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and mental retardation. Targeted inactivation of Dlx5/6 in mouse GABAergic neurons (Dlx5/6VgatCre mice) results in behavioral and metabolic phenotypes notably increasing lifespan by 33%. Here, we show that Dlx5/6VgatCre mice present a hyper-vocalization and hyper-socialization phenotype. While only 7% of control mice emitted more than 700 vocalizations/10 min, 30% and 56% of heterozygous or homozygous Dlx5/6VgatCre mice emitted more than 700 and up to 1,400 calls/10 min with a higher proportion of complex and modulated calls. Hyper-vocalizing animals were more sociable: the time spent in dynamic interactions with an unknown visitor was more than doubled compared to low-vocalizing individuals. The characters affected by Dlx5/6 in the mouse (sociability, vocalization, skull, and brain shape…) overlap those affected in the "domestication syndrome". We therefore explored the possibility that DLX5/6 played a role in human evolution and "self-domestication" comparing DLX5/6 genomic regions from Neanderthal and modern humans. We identified an introgressed Neanderthal haplotype (DLX5/6-N-Haplotype) present in 12.6% of European individuals that covers DLX5/6 coding and regulatory sequences. The DLX5/6-N-Haplotype includes the binding site for GTF2I, a gene associated with Williams-Beuren syndrome, a hyper-sociability and hyper-vocalization neurodevelopmental disorder. The DLX5/6-N-Haplotype is significantly underrepresented in semi-supercentenarians (>105 years of age), a well-established human model of healthy aging and longevity, suggesting their involvement in the coevolution of longevity, sociability, and speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanni Levi
- Physiologie Moléculaire et Adaptation, CNRS UMR7221, Département AVIV, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Camille de Lombares
- Physiologie Moléculaire et Adaptation, CNRS UMR7221, Département AVIV, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Cristina Giuliani
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology & Centre for Genome Biology, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Iannuzzi
- Alma Mater Research Institute on Global Challenges and Climate Change, University of Bologna, Italy
| | - Rym Aouci
- Physiologie Moléculaire et Adaptation, CNRS UMR7221, Département AVIV, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Paolo Garagnani
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Clinical Chemistry, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Claudio Franceschi
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Institute of Information Technologies, Mathematics and Mechanics, Lobachevsky University, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
| | - Dominique Grimaud-Hervé
- Histoire Naturelle de l’Homme Préhistorique, CNRS UMR 7194, Département H&E, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Nicolas Narboux-Nême
- Physiologie Moléculaire et Adaptation, CNRS UMR7221, Département AVIV, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
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24
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An etiology of human modernity. ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW 2021. [DOI: 10.2478/anre-2021-0020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Following the refutation of the replacement hypothesis, which had proposed that a ‘superior’ hominin species arose in Africa and replaced all other humans existing at the time, the auto-domestication hypothesis remains the only viable explanation for the relatively abrupt change from robust to gracile humans in the Late Pleistocene. It invokes the incidental institution of the domestication syndrome in humans, most probably by newly introduced cultural practices. It also postulates that the induction of exograms compensated for the atrophy of the brain caused by domestication. This new explanation of the origins of modernity in humans elucidates practically all its many aspects, in stark contrast to the superseded replacement hypothesis, which explained virtually nothing. The first results of the domestication syndrome’s genetic exploration have become available in recent years, and they endorse the human self-domestication hypothesis.
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25
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Guerra VI, Haynes G, Byrne M, Hart MW. Selection on genes associated with the evolution of divergent life histories: Gamete recognition or something else? Evol Dev 2021; 23:423-438. [PMID: 34549504 DOI: 10.1111/ede.12392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2020] [Revised: 04/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Gamete compatibility, and fertilization success, is mediated by gamete-recognition genes (GRGs) that are expected to show genetic evidence of a response to sexual selection associated with mating system traits. Changes in the strength of sexual selection can arise from the resolution of sperm competition among males, sexual conflicts of interest between males and females, or other mechanisms of sexual selection. To assess these expectations, we compared patterns of episodic diversifying selection among genes expressed in the gonads of Cryptasterina pentagona and C. hystera, which recently speciated and have evolved different mating systems (gonochoric or hermaphroditic), modes of fertilization (outcrossing or selfing), and dispersal (planktonic larvae or internal brooding). Cryptasterina spp. inhabit the upper intertidal of the coast of Queensland and coral islands of the Great Barrier Reef. We found some evidence for positive selection on a GRG in the outcrossing C. pentagona, and we found evidence of loss of gene function in a GRG of the self-fertilizing C. hystera. The modification or loss of gene functionality may be evidence of relaxed selection on some aspects of gamete interaction in C. hystera. In addition to these genes involved in gamete interactions, we also found genes under selection linked to abiotic stress, chromosomal regulation, polyspermy, and egg-laying. We interpret those results as possible evidence that Cryptasterina spp. with different mating systems may have been adapting in divergent ways to oxidative stress or other factors associated with reproduction in the physiologically challenging environment of the high intertidal. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Recent speciation between two sea stars was unlikely the result of selection on gamete-recognition genes annotated in this study. Instead, our results point to selection on genes linked to the intertidal environment and reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa I Guerra
- Department of Biological Sciences and Crawford Laboratory of Evolutionary Studies, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.,Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Gwilym Haynes
- Department of Biological Sciences and Crawford Laboratory of Evolutionary Studies, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Maria Byrne
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Michael W Hart
- Department of Biological Sciences and Crawford Laboratory of Evolutionary Studies, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
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26
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Khan N, de Manuel M, Peyregne S, Do R, Prufer K, Marques-Bonet T, Varki N, Gagneux P, Varki A. Multiple Genomic Events Altering Hominin SIGLEC Biology and Innate Immunity Predated the Common Ancestor of Humans and Archaic Hominins. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 12:1040-1050. [PMID: 32556248 PMCID: PMC7379906 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Human-specific pseudogenization of the CMAH gene eliminated the mammalian sialic acid (Sia) Neu5Gc (generating an excess of its precursor Neu5Ac), thus changing ubiquitous cell surface “self-associated molecular patterns” that modulate innate immunity via engagement of CD33-related-Siglec receptors. The Alu-fusion-mediated loss-of-function of CMAH fixed ∼2–3 Ma, possibly contributing to the origins of the genus Homo. The mutation likely altered human self-associated molecular patterns, triggering multiple events, including emergence of human-adapted pathogens with strong preference for Neu5Ac recognition and/or presenting Neu5Ac-containing molecular mimics of human glycans, which can suppress immune responses via CD33-related-Siglec engagement. Human-specific alterations reported in some gene-encoding Sia-sensing proteins suggested a “hotspot” in hominin evolution. The availability of more hominid genomes including those of two extinct hominins now allows full reanalysis and evolutionary timing. Functional changes occur in 8/13 members of the human genomic cluster encoding CD33-related Siglecs, all predating the human common ancestor. Comparisons with great ape genomes indicate that these changes are unique to hominins. We found no evidence for strong selection after the Human–Neanderthal/Denisovan common ancestor, and these extinct hominin genomes include almost all major changes found in humans, indicating that these changes in hominin sialobiology predate the Neanderthal–human divergence ∼0.6 Ma. Multiple changes in this genomic cluster may also explain human-specific expression of CD33rSiglecs in unexpected locations such as amnion, placental trophoblast, pancreatic islets, ovarian fibroblasts, microglia, Natural Killer(NK) cells, and epithelia. Taken together, our data suggest that innate immune interactions with pathogens markedly altered hominin Siglec biology between 0.6 and 2 Ma, potentially affecting human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naazneen Khan
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego.,Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA),University of California San Diego
| | - Marc de Manuel
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Stephane Peyregne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Raymond Do
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego.,Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA),University of California San Diego
| | - Kay Prufer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tomas Marques-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain.,Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.,CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.,Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Nissi Varki
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego.,Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA),University of California San Diego
| | - Pascal Gagneux
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego.,Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA),University of California San Diego
| | - Ajit Varki
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego.,Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA),University of California San Diego
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27
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Benítez-Burraco A, Chekalin E, Bruskin S, Tatarinova T, Morozova I. Recent selection of candidate genes for mammal domestication in Europeans and language change in Europe: a hypothesis. Ann Hum Biol 2021; 48:313-320. [PMID: 34241552 DOI: 10.1080/03014460.2021.1936634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM Human evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behaviour, and culture. One source of these changes has been hypothesised to be our self-domestication (that is, the development in humans of features commonly found in domesticated strains of mammals, seemingly as a result of selection for reduced aggression). Signals of domestication, notably brain size reduction, have increased in recent times. METHODS In this paper, we compare whole-genome data between the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals and modern Europeans. RESULTS We show that genes associated with mammal domestication and with neural crest development and function are significantly differently enriched in nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms between these two groups. CONCLUSION We hypothesise that these changes might account for the increased features of self-domestication in modern humans and, ultimately, for subtle recent changes in human cognition and behaviour, including language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Benítez-Burraco
- Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
| | - Evgeny Chekalin
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Sergey Bruskin
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Tatiana Tatarinova
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Biology, University of La Verne, La Verne, CA, USA.,A. A. Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Fundamental Biology and Biotechnology, Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
| | - Irina Morozova
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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28
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Schaefer NK, Shapiro B, Green RE. An ancestral recombination graph of human, Neanderthal, and Denisovan genomes. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabc0776. [PMID: 34272242 PMCID: PMC8284891 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc0776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2020] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
Many humans carry genes from Neanderthals, a legacy of past admixture. Existing methods detect this archaic hominin ancestry within human genomes using patterns of linkage disequilibrium or direct comparison to Neanderthal genomes. Each of these methods is limited in sensitivity and scalability. We describe a new ancestral recombination graph inference algorithm that scales to large genome-wide datasets and demonstrate its accuracy on real and simulated data. We then generate a genome-wide ancestral recombination graph including human and archaic hominin genomes. From this, we generate a map within human genomes of archaic ancestry and of genomic regions not shared with archaic hominins either by admixture or incomplete lineage sorting. We find that only 1.5 to 7% of the modern human genome is uniquely human. We also find evidence of multiple bursts of adaptive changes specific to modern humans within the past 600,000 years involving genes related to brain development and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan K Schaefer
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
- Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - Beth Shapiro
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
- Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - Richard E Green
- Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
- Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
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29
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Gregory MD, Eisenberg DP, Hamborg M, Kippenhan JS, Kohn P, Kolachana B, Dickinson D, Berman KF. Neanderthal-derived genetic variation in living humans relates to schizophrenia diagnosis, to psychotic symptom severity, and to dopamine synthesis. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2021; 186:329-338. [PMID: 34487600 PMCID: PMC8454493 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia has been hypothesized to be a human-specific condition, but experimental approaches to testing this idea have been limited. Because Neanderthals, our closest evolutionary relatives, interbred with modern humans prior to their disappearance from the fossil record, leaving a residual echo that survives in our DNA today, we leveraged new discoveries about ancient hominid DNA to explore this hypothesis in living people in three converging ways. First, in four independent case-control datasets totaling 9,362 individuals, individuals with schizophrenia had less Neanderthal-derived genetic variation than controls (p = .044). Second, in 49 unmedicated inpatients with schizophrenia, having more Neanderthal admixture predicted less severe positive symptoms (p = .046). Finally, using 18 F-fluorodopa PET scanning in 172 healthy individuals, having greater Neanderthal introgression was significantly associated with lower dopamine synthesis capacity in the striatum and pons (p's < 2 × 10-5 ), which is fundamentally important in the pathophysiology and treatment of psychosis. These results may help to elucidate the evolutionary history of a devastating neuropsychiatric disease by supporting the notion of schizophrenia as a human-specific condition. Additionally, the relationship between Neanderthal admixture and dopamine function suggests a potential mechanism whereby Neanderthal admixture may have affected our gene pool to alter schizophrenia risk and/or course.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael D. Gregory
- Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Daniel P. Eisenberg
- Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Madeline Hamborg
- Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - J. Shane Kippenhan
- Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Philip Kohn
- Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Bhaskar Kolachana
- Human Brain Collection Core, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Dwight Dickinson
- Psychosis and Cognitive Studies Section, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Karen F. Berman
- Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Psychosis and Cognitive Studies Section, Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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30
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García-Pérez R, Esteller-Cucala P, Mas G, Lobón I, Di Carlo V, Riera M, Kuhlwilm M, Navarro A, Blancher A, Di Croce L, Gómez-Skarmeta JL, Juan D, Marquès-Bonet T. Epigenomic profiling of primate lymphoblastoid cell lines reveals the evolutionary patterns of epigenetic activities in gene regulatory architectures. Nat Commun 2021; 12:3116. [PMID: 34035253 PMCID: PMC8149829 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23397-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Changes in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression have a central role in evolution. Here, we extensively profiled a panel of human, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and macaque lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs), using ChIP-seq for five histone marks, ATAC-seq and RNA-seq, further complemented with whole genome sequencing (WGS) and whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS). We annotated regulatory elements (RE) and integrated chromatin contact maps to define gene regulatory architectures, creating the largest catalog of RE in primates to date. We report that epigenetic conservation and its correlation with sequence conservation in primates depends on the activity state of the regulatory element. Our gene regulatory architectures reveal the coordination of different types of components and highlight the role of promoters and intragenic enhancers (gE) in the regulation of gene expression. We observe that most regulatory changes occur in weakly active gE. Remarkably, novel human-specific gE with weak activities are enriched in human-specific nucleotide changes. These elements appear in genes with signals of positive selection and human acceleration, tissue-specific expression, and particular functional enrichments, suggesting that the regulatory evolution of these genes may have contributed to human adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Glòria Mas
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Irene Lobón
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Valerio Di Carlo
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Meritxell Riera
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Martin Kuhlwilm
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Arcadi Navarro
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
- National Institute for Bioinformatics (INB), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Antoine Blancher
- Laboratoire d'immunologie, CHU de Toulouse, Institut Fédératif de Biologie, hôpital Purpan, Toulouse, France
- Centre de Physiopathologie Toulouse-Purpan (CPTP), Université de Toulouse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm), Université Paul Sabatier (UPS), Toulouse, France
| | - Luciano Di Croce
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
| | - José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta
- Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Pablo de Olavide-Junta de Andalucía, Seville, Spain
| | - David Juan
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Tomàs Marquès-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain.
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.
- CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
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31
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O'Rourke T, Martins PT, Asano R, Tachibana RO, Okanoya K, Boeckx C. Capturing the Effects of Domestication on Vocal Learning Complexity. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:462-474. [PMID: 33810982 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2020] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Domesticated and vocal learning species can serve as informative model organisms for the reduction of reactive aggression and emergence of speech in our lineage. Amidst mounting evidence that domestication modifies vocal repertoires across different species, we focus on the domesticated Bengalese finch, which has a more complex song than the wild-type white-rumped munia. Our explanation for this effect revolves around the glutamate neurotransmitter system. Glutamate signaling (i) is implicated in birdsong learning, (ii) controls dopamine activity in neural circuits crucial for vocal learning, (iii) is disproportionately targeted in the evolution of domesticates, and (iv) regulates stress responses and aggressive behaviors attenuated under domestication. We propose that attenuated excitation of stress-related neural circuits potentiates vocal learning via altered dopaminergic signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas O'Rourke
- Section of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute for Complex Systems (UBICS), 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Pedro Tiago Martins
- Section of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute for Complex Systems (UBICS), 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rie Asano
- Department of Systematic Musicology, University of Cologne, 50923 Cologne, Germany
| | - Ryosuke O Tachibana
- Center for Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 153-8902 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kazuo Okanoya
- Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 153-8902 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Section of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute for Complex Systems (UBICS), 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
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32
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Human-chimpanzee fused cells reveal cis-regulatory divergence underlying skeletal evolution. Nat Genet 2021; 53:467-476. [PMID: 33731941 PMCID: PMC8038968 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00804-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2020] [Accepted: 01/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Gene regulatory divergence is thought to play a central role in determining human-specific traits. However, our ability to link divergent regulation to divergent phenotypes is limited. Here, we utilized human-chimpanzee hybrid induced pluripotent stem cells to study gene expression separating these species. The tetraploid hybrid cells allowed us to separate cis- from trans-regulatory effects, and to control for non-genetic confounding factors. We differentiated these cells into cranial neural crest cells (CNCCs), the primary cell type giving rise to the face. We discovered evidence of lineage-specific selection on the hedgehog signaling pathway, including a human-specific 6-fold down-regulation of EVC2 (LIMBIN), a key hedgehog gene. Inducing a similar down-regulation of EVC2 substantially reduced hedgehog signaling output. Mice and humans lacking functional EVC2 show striking phenotypic parallels to human-chimpanzee craniofacial differences, suggesting that the regulatory divergence of hedgehog signaling may have contributed to the unique craniofacial morphology of humans.
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33
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Tilot AK, Khramtsova EA, Liang D, Grasby KL, Jahanshad N, Painter J, Colodro-Conde L, Bralten J, Hibar DP, Lind PA, Liu S, Brotman SM, Thompson PM, Medland SE, Macciardi F, Stranger BE, Davis LK, Fisher SE, Stein JL. The Evolutionary History of Common Genetic Variants Influencing Human Cortical Surface Area. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:1873-1887. [PMID: 33290510 PMCID: PMC7945014 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Revised: 10/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Structural brain changes along the lineage leading to modern Homo sapiens contributed to our distinctive cognitive and social abilities. However, the evolutionarily relevant molecular variants impacting key aspects of neuroanatomy are largely unknown. Here, we integrate evolutionary annotations of the genome at diverse timescales with common variant associations from large-scale neuroimaging genetic screens. We find that alleles with evidence of recent positive polygenic selection over the past 2000-3000 years are associated with increased surface area (SA) of the entire cortex, as well as specific regions, including those involved in spoken language and visual processing. Therefore, polygenic selective pressures impact the structure of specific cortical areas even over relatively recent timescales. Moreover, common sequence variation within human gained enhancers active in the prenatal cortex is associated with postnatal global SA. We show that such variation modulates the function of a regulatory element of the developmentally relevant transcription factor HEY2 in human neural progenitor cells and is associated with structural changes in the inferior frontal cortex. These results indicate that non-coding genomic regions active during prenatal cortical development are involved in the evolution of human brain structure and identify novel regulatory elements and genes impacting modern human brain structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda K Tilot
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 6500 AH, Netherlands
- Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA
| | - Ekaterina A Khramtsova
- Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine & Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Computational Sciences, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Spring House, PA 19477, USA
| | - Dan Liang
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Katrina L Grasby
- Psychiatric Genetics, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia
| | - Neda Jahanshad
- Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA
| | - Jodie Painter
- Psychiatric Genetics, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia
| | - Lucía Colodro-Conde
- Psychiatric Genetics, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia
| | - Janita Bralten
- Radboud University Medical Center, 6525 XZ Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | | | - Penelope A Lind
- Psychiatric Genetics, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia
| | - Siyao Liu
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Sarah M Brotman
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Paul M Thompson
- Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA
| | - Sarah E Medland
- Psychiatric Genetics, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia
| | - Fabio Macciardi
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Barbara E Stranger
- Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine & Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, Center for Genetic Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
| | - Lea K Davis
- Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Genetics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Simon E Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 6500 AH, Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 6500 HB, Netherlands
| | - Jason L Stein
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
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34
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Lindo J, DeGiorgio M. Understanding the Adaptive Evolutionary Histories of South American Ancient and Present-Day Populations via Genomics. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:360. [PMID: 33801556 PMCID: PMC8001801 DOI: 10.3390/genes12030360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 02/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The South American continent is remarkably diverse in its ecological zones, spanning the Amazon rainforest, the high-altitude Andes, and Tierra del Fuego. Yet the original human populations of the continent successfully inhabited all these zones, well before the buffering effects of modern technology. Therefore, it is likely that the various cultures were successful, in part, due to positive natural selection that allowed them to successfully establish populations for thousands of years. Detecting positive selection in these populations is still in its infancy, as the ongoing effects of European contact have decimated many of these populations and introduced gene flow from outside of the continent. In this review, we explore hypotheses of possible human biological adaptation, methods to identify positive selection, the utilization of ancient DNA, and the integration of modern genomes through the identification of genomic tracts that reflect the ancestry of the first populations of the Americas.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Lindo
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Michael DeGiorgio
- Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA
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35
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Rinker DC, Simonti CN, McArthur E, Shaw D, Hodges E, Capra JA. Neanderthal introgression reintroduced functional ancestral alleles lost in Eurasian populations. Nat Ecol Evol 2020; 4:1332-1341. [PMID: 32719451 PMCID: PMC7529911 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1261-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2019] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Neanderthal ancestry remains across modern Eurasian genomes and introgressed sequences influence diverse phenotypes. Here, we demonstrate that introgressed sequences reintroduced thousands of ancestral alleles that were lost in Eurasian populations before introgression. Our simulations and variant effect predictions argue that these reintroduced alleles (RAs) are more likely to be tolerated by modern humans than are introgressed Neanderthal-derived alleles (NDAs) due to their distinct evolutionary histories. Consistent with this, we show enrichment for RAs and depletion for NDAs on introgressed haplotypes with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and phenotype associations. Analysis of available cross-population eQTLs and massively parallel reporter assay data show that RAs commonly influence gene expression independent of linked NDAs. We further validate these independent effects for one RA in vitro. Finally, we demonstrate that NDAs are depleted for regulatory activity compared to RAs, while RAs have activity levels similar to non-introgressed variants. In summary, our study reveals that Neanderthal introgression reintroduced thousands of lost ancestral variants with gene regulatory activity and that these RAs were more tolerated than NDAs. Thus, RAs and their distinct evolutionary histories must be considered when evaluating the effects of introgression.
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Affiliation(s)
- David C Rinker
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Corinne N Simonti
- Department of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Evonne McArthur
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Douglas Shaw
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Emily Hodges
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - John A Capra
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
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Mafessoni F, Grote S, de Filippo C, Slon V, Kolobova KA, Viola B, Markin SV, Chintalapati M, Peyrégne S, Skov L, Skoglund P, Krivoshapkin AI, Derevianko AP, Meyer M, Kelso J, Peter B, Prüfer K, Pääbo S. A high-coverage Neandertal genome from Chagyrskaya Cave. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:15132-15136. [PMID: 32546518 PMCID: PMC7334501 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004944117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 116] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
We sequenced the genome of a Neandertal from Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains, Russia, to 27-fold genomic coverage. We show that this Neandertal was a female and that she was more related to Neandertals in western Eurasia [Prüfer et al., Science 358, 655-658 (2017); Hajdinjak et al., Nature 555, 652-656 (2018)] than to Neandertals who lived earlier in Denisova Cave [Prüfer et al., Nature 505, 43-49 (2014)], which is located about 100 km away. About 12.9% of the Chagyrskaya genome is spanned by homozygous regions that are between 2.5 and 10 centiMorgans (cM) long. This is consistent with the fact that Siberian Neandertals lived in relatively isolated populations of less than 60 individuals. In contrast, a Neandertal from Europe, a Denisovan from the Altai Mountains, and ancient modern humans seem to have lived in populations of larger sizes. The availability of three Neandertal genomes of high quality allows a view of genetic features that were unique to Neandertals and that are likely to have been at high frequency among them. We find that genes highly expressed in the striatum in the basal ganglia of the brain carry more amino-acid-changing substitutions than genes expressed elsewhere in the brain, suggesting that the striatum may have evolved unique functions in Neandertals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrizio Mafessoni
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Steffi Grote
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cesare de Filippo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Viviane Slon
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kseniya A Kolobova
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Bence Viola
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2, Canada
| | - Sergey V Markin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Manjusha Chintalapati
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stephane Peyrégne
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Laurits Skov
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Pontus Skoglund
- Ancient Genomics Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute, NW1 1AT London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrey I Krivoshapkin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Anatoly P Derevianko
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Janet Kelso
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Benjamin Peter
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kay Prüfer
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Svante Pääbo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;
- Human Evolutionary Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna-son, 904-0495 Okinawa, Japan
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37
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Hong Z. Modelling the on-going natural selection of educational attainment in contemporary societies. J Theor Biol 2020; 493:110210. [PMID: 32092304 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2019] [Revised: 02/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
There has been substantial increase in education attainment (EA) in both developing and developed countries over the past century. I present a simulation model to examine the potential evolutionary trajectories of EA under current selective pressure in western populations. With the assumption that EA is negatively correlated with fitness and has both a genetic component and a cultural component, I show that when prestige-biased transmission of the EA (i.e. people with more education are more likely to be copied) is present, the phenotype of EA is likely to keep increasing in the short term, yet the genetic component of EA may undergo a constant decline and become the limiting factor in further phenotypic increase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ze Hong
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA, 02138, USA.
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38
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Harris AM, DeGiorgio M. Identifying and Classifying Shared Selective Sweeps from Multilocus Data. Genetics 2020; 215:143-171. [PMID: 32152048 PMCID: PMC7198270 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.120.303137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Positive selection causes beneficial alleles to rise to high frequency, resulting in a selective sweep of the diversity surrounding the selected sites. Accordingly, the signature of a selective sweep in an ancestral population may still remain in its descendants. Identifying signatures of selection in the ancestor that are shared among its descendants is important to contextualize the timing of a sweep, but few methods exist for this purpose. We introduce the statistic SS-H12, which can identify genomic regions under shared positive selection across populations and is based on the theory of the expected haplotype homozygosity statistic H12, which detects recent hard and soft sweeps from the presence of high-frequency haplotypes. SS-H12 is distinct from comparable statistics because it requires a minimum of only two populations, and properly identifies and differentiates between independent convergent sweeps and true ancestral sweeps, with high power and robustness to a variety of demographic models. Furthermore, we can apply SS-H12 in conjunction with the ratio of statistics we term [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] to further classify identified shared sweeps as hard or soft. Finally, we identified both previously reported and novel shared sweep candidates from human whole-genome sequences. Previously reported candidates include the well-characterized ancestral sweeps at LCT and SLC24A5 in Indo-Europeans, as well as GPHN worldwide. Novel candidates include an ancestral sweep at RGS18 in sub-Saharan Africans involved in regulating the platelet response and implicated in sudden cardiac death, and a convergent sweep at C2CD5 between European and East Asian populations that may explain their different insulin responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre M Harris
- Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
- Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
| | - Michael DeGiorgio
- Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida 33431
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Moriano J, Boeckx C. Modern human changes in regulatory regions implicated in cortical development. BMC Genomics 2020; 21:304. [PMID: 32299352 PMCID: PMC7161147 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-020-6706-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Accepted: 03/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent paleogenomic studies have highlighted a very small set of proteins carrying modern human-specific missense changes in comparison to our closest extinct relatives. Despite being frequently alluded to as highly relevant, species-specific differences in regulatory regions remain understudied. Here, we integrate data from paleogenomics, chromatin modification and physical interaction, and single-cell gene expression of neural progenitor cells to identify derived regulatory changes in the modern human lineage in comparison to Neanderthals/Denisovans. We report a set of genes whose enhancers and/or promoters harbor modern human single nucleotide changes and are active at early stages of cortical development. RESULTS We identified 212 genes controlled by regulatory regions harboring modern human changes where Neanderthals/Denisovans carry the ancestral allele. These regulatory regions significantly overlap with putative modern human positively-selected regions and schizophrenia-related genetic loci. Among the 212 genes, we identified a substantial proportion of genes related to transcriptional regulation and, specifically, an enrichment for the SETD1A histone methyltransferase complex, known to regulate WNT signaling for the generation and proliferation of intermediate progenitor cells. CONCLUSIONS This study complements previous research focused on protein-coding changes distinguishing our species from Neanderthals/Denisovans and highlights chromatin regulation as a functional category so far overlooked in modern human evolution studies. We present a set of candidates that will help to illuminate the investigation of modern human-specific ontogenetic trajectories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Moriano
- Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, Barcelona, Spain.
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Martı́ Franquès, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, Barcelona, Spain.
- Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, Martı́ Franquès, Barcelona, Spain.
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Passeig Lluı́s Companys, Barcelona, Spain.
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40
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Naval-Sanchez M, McWilliam S, Evans B, Yáñez JM, Houston RD, Kijas JW. Changed Patterns of Genomic Variation Following Recent Domestication: Selection Sweeps in Farmed Atlantic Salmon. Front Genet 2020; 11:264. [PMID: 32318091 PMCID: PMC7147387 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Accepted: 03/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The introduction of wild Atlantic salmon into captivity, and their subsequent artificial selection for production traits, has caused phenotypic differences between domesticated fish and their wild counterparts. Identification of regions of the genome underling these changes offers the promise of characterizing the early biological consequences of domestication. In the current study, we sequenced a population of farmed European Atlantic salmon and compared the observed patterns of SNP variation to those found in conspecific wild populations. This identified 139 genomic regions that contained significantly elevated SNP homozygosity in farmed fish when compared to their wild counterparts. The most extreme was adjacent to versican, a gene involved in control of neural crest cell migration. To control for false positive signals, a second and independent dataset of farmed and wild European Atlantic salmon was assessed using the same methodology. A total of 81 outlier regions detected in the first dataset showed significantly reduced homozygosity within the second one, strongly suggesting the genomic regions identified are enriched for true selection sweeps. Examination of the associated genes identified a number previously characterized as targets of selection in other domestic species and that have roles in development, behavior and olfactory system. These include arcvf, sema6, errb4, id2-like, and 6n1-like genes. Finally, we searched for evidence of parallel sweeps using a farmed population of North American origin. This failed to detect a convincing overlap to the putative sweeps present in European populations, suggesting the factors that drive patterns of variation under domestication and early artificial selection were largely independent. This is the first analysis on domestication of aquaculture species exploiting whole-genome sequence data and resulted in the identification of sweeps common to multiple independent populations of farmed European Atlantic salmon.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Bradley Evans
- Salmon Enterprises of Tasmania Pty. Limited, Wayatinah, TAS, Australia
| | - José M Yáñez
- Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Ross D Houston
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom
| | - James W Kijas
- CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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41
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Yao Y, Yang J, Xie Y, Liao H, Yang B, Xu Q, Rao S. No Evidence for Widespread Positive Selection Signatures in Common Risk Alleles Associated with Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 2020; 46:603-611. [PMID: 31150552 PMCID: PMC7147583 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbz048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia poses an evolutionary-genetic paradox as it exhibits strongly negative fitness effects (early mortality and decreased fecundity), yet it persists at a prevalence of approximately 1% worldwide. Evidence from several studies have suggested that schizophrenia is evolved and maintained in part as a maladaptive byproduct of recent positive selection and adaptive evolution in human beings. However, inconsistent results have been also proposed, challenging the recent positive selection theory to explain the high population frequency of schizophrenia-associated alleles. Here, we used public domain data to locate signatures of positive selection based on genetic diversity, derived allele frequency, differentiation between populations, and long haplotypes at schizophrenia-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and randomly selected SNPs (as negative controls). We found evidence for positive selection at 10 out of the 105 schizophrenia-associated SNPs, while 5 of these SNPs involved positive selection for the protective allele. Taken together, the absence of widespread positive selection signals at the schizophrenia-associated SNPs, along with the fact that half of the positive selection favored the protective allele, provide little evidence supporting the positive selection theory in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yao Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China,School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China,School of Basic Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
| | - Jia Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Yimin Xie
- School of Basic Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
| | - Hai Liao
- School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
| | - Baoying Yang
- College of Mathematics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
| | - Qi Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Shuquan Rao
- School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China,State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China,To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: +86 28 87603202; fax: +86 28 87603202; e-mail:
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42
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Gokhman D, Nissim-Rafinia M, Agranat-Tamir L, Housman G, García-Pérez R, Lizano E, Cheronet O, Mallick S, Nieves-Colón MA, Li H, Alpaslan-Roodenberg S, Novak M, Gu H, Osinski JM, Ferrando-Bernal M, Gelabert P, Lipende I, Mjungu D, Kondova I, Bontrop R, Kullmer O, Weber G, Shahar T, Dvir-Ginzberg M, Faerman M, Quillen EE, Meissner A, Lahav Y, Kandel L, Liebergall M, Prada ME, Vidal JM, Gronostajski RM, Stone AC, Yakir B, Lalueza-Fox C, Pinhasi R, Reich D, Marques-Bonet T, Meshorer E, Carmel L. Differential DNA methylation of vocal and facial anatomy genes in modern humans. Nat Commun 2020; 11:1189. [PMID: 32132541 PMCID: PMC7055320 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15020-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2019] [Accepted: 02/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Changes in potential regulatory elements are thought to be key drivers of phenotypic divergence. However, identifying changes to regulatory elements that underlie human-specific traits has proven very challenging. Here, we use 63 reconstructed and experimentally measured DNA methylation maps of ancient and present-day humans, as well as of six chimpanzees, to detect differentially methylated regions that likely emerged in modern humans after the split from Neanderthals and Denisovans. We show that genes associated with face and vocal tract anatomy went through particularly extensive methylation changes. Specifically, we identify widespread hypermethylation in a network of face- and voice-associated genes (SOX9, ACAN, COL2A1, NFIX and XYLT1). We propose that these repression patterns appeared after the split from Neanderthals and Denisovans, and that they might have played a key role in shaping the modern human face and vocal tract.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Gokhman
- Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
| | - Malka Nissim-Rafinia
- Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Lily Agranat-Tamir
- Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel
- Department of Statistics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Genevieve Housman
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281, USA
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
| | | | - Esther Lizano
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Olivia Cheronet
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Swapan Mallick
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Maria A Nieves-Colón
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281, USA
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
| | - Heng Li
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | | | - Mario Novak
- Institute for Anthropological Research, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia
- Earth Institute and School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
| | | | - Jason M Osinski
- Department of Biochemistry, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA
| | | | - Pere Gelabert
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Iddi Lipende
- Gombe Stream Research Center, Jane Goodall Institute, Kigoma, Tanzania
| | - Deus Mjungu
- Gombe Stream Research Center, Jane Goodall Institute, Kigoma, Tanzania
| | - Ivanela Kondova
- Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC), Rijswijk, Netherlands
| | - Ronald Bontrop
- Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC), Rijswijk, Netherlands
| | - Ottmar Kullmer
- Department of Palaeoanthropology and Messel Research, Senckenberg Center of Human Evolution and Paleoecology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Gerhard Weber
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Tal Shahar
- Department of Neurosurgery, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Mona Dvir-Ginzberg
- Laboratory of Cartilage Biology, Institute of Dental Sciences, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91120, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Marina Faerman
- Laboratory of Bioanthropology and Ancient DNA, Institute of Dental Sciences, Faculty of Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91120, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Ellen E Quillen
- Department of Genetics, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, 85287, USA
| | - Alexander Meissner
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - Yonatan Lahav
- Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery Department, Laryngeal Surgery Unit, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel
- The Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Leonid Kandel
- Orthopaedic Department, Hadassah - Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Meir Liebergall
- Orthopaedic Department, Hadassah - Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - María E Prada
- I.E.S.O. 'Los Salados'. Junta de Castilla y León, León, Spain
| | - Julio M Vidal
- Junta de Castilla y León, Servicio de Cultura de León, León, Spain
| | - Richard M Gronostajski
- Department of Biochemistry, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA
- Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics Program, New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA
| | - Anne C Stone
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281, USA
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
| | - Benjamin Yakir
- Department of Statistics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Carles Lalueza-Fox
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, 08003, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ron Pinhasi
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - David Reich
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Tomas Marques-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, 08003, Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010, Barcelona, Spain
- CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), 08028, Barcelona, Spain
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Eran Meshorer
- Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
- The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
| | - Liran Carmel
- Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
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43
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Glutamate receptors in domestication and modern human evolution. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 108:341-357. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2019] [Revised: 09/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
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44
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Zanella M, Vitriolo A, Andirko A, Martins PT, Sturm S, O’Rourke T, Laugsch M, Malerba N, Skaros A, Trattaro S, Germain PL, Mihailovic M, Merla G, Rada-Iglesias A, Boeckx C, Testa G. Dosage analysis of the 7q11.23 Williams region identifies BAZ1B as a major human gene patterning the modern human face and underlying self-domestication. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2019; 5:eaaw7908. [PMID: 31840056 PMCID: PMC6892627 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw7908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2019] [Accepted: 09/26/2019] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
We undertook a functional dissection of chromatin remodeler BAZ1B in neural crest (NC) stem cells (NCSCs) from a uniquely informative cohort of typical and atypical patients harboring 7q11.23 copy number variants. Our results reveal a key contribution of BAZ1B to NCSC in vitro induction and migration, coupled with a crucial involvement in NC-specific transcriptional circuits and distal regulation. By intersecting our experimental data with new paleogenetic analyses comparing modern and archaic humans, we found a modern-specific enrichment for regulatory changes both in BAZ1B and its experimentally defined downstream targets, thereby providing the first empirical validation of the human self-domestication hypothesis and positioning BAZ1B as a master regulator of the modern human face. In so doing, we provide experimental evidence that the craniofacial and cognitive/behavioral phenotypes caused by alterations of the Williams-Beuren syndrome critical region can serve as a powerful entry point into the evolution of the modern human face and prosociality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Zanella
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Vitriolo
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Alejandro Andirko
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Pedro Tiago Martins
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Stefanie Sturm
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Thomas O’Rourke
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Magdalena Laugsch
- Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Natascia Malerba
- Division of Medical Genetics, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy
| | - Adrianos Skaros
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Sebastiano Trattaro
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Pierre-Luc Germain
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
- D-HEST Institute for Neuroscience, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Marija Mihailovic
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Merla
- Division of Medical Genetics, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy
| | - Alvaro Rada-Iglesias
- Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD), University of Cologne, Germany
- Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria, University of Cantabria, Cantabria, Spain
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Giuseppe Testa
- Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
- Human Technopole, Center for Neurogenomics, Via Cristina Belgioioso 171, Milan, Italy
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45
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Kanton S, Boyle MJ, He Z, Santel M, Weigert A, Sanchís-Calleja F, Guijarro P, Sidow L, Fleck JS, Han D, Qian Z, Heide M, Huttner WB, Khaitovich P, Pääbo S, Treutlein B, Camp JG. Organoid single-cell genomic atlas uncovers human-specific features of brain development. Nature 2019; 574:418-422. [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1654-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 312] [Impact Index Per Article: 62.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2018] [Accepted: 09/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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46
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Brzozowska MM, Havula E, Allen RB, Cox MP. Genetics, adaptation to environmental changes and archaic admixture in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus in Indigenous Australians. Rev Endocr Metab Disord 2019; 20:321-332. [PMID: 31278514 DOI: 10.1007/s11154-019-09505-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Indigenous Australians are particularly affected by type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) due to both their genetic susceptibility and a range of environmental and lifestyle risk factors. Recent genetic studies link predisposition to some diseases, including T2D, to alleles acquired from archaic hominins, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, which persist in the genomes of modern humans today. Indo-Pacific human populations, including Indigenous Australians, remain extremely underrepresented in genomic research with a paucity of data examining the impact of Denisovan or Neanderthal lineages on human phenotypes in Oceania. The few genetic studies undertaken emphasize the uniqueness and antiquity of Indigenous Australian genomes, with possibly the largest proportion of Denisovan ancestry of any population in the world. In this review, we focus on the potential contributions of ancient genes/pathways to modern human phenotypes, while also highlighting the evolutionary roles of genetic adaptation to dietary and environmental changes associated with an adopted Western lifestyle. We discuss the role of genetic and epigenetic factors in the pathogenesis of T2D in understudied Indigenous Australians, including the potential impact of archaic gene lineages on this disease. Finally, we propose that greater understanding of the underlying genetic predisposition may contribute to the clinical efficacy of diabetes management in Indigenous Australians. We suggest that improved identification of T2D risk variants in Oceania is needed. Such studies promise to clarify how genetic and phenotypic differences vary between populations and, crucially, provide novel targets for personalised medical therapies in currently marginalized groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Malgorzata Monika Brzozowska
- Endocrinology Department, Sutherland Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- St George & Sutherland Hospital Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Essi Havula
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Richard Benjamin Allen
- The Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Murray P Cox
- Statistics and Bioinformatics Group, School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, 4410, New Zealand
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47
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Kuhlwilm M, Boeckx C. A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins. Sci Rep 2019; 9:8463. [PMID: 31186485 PMCID: PMC6560109 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44877-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Accepted: 05/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Throughout the past decade, studying ancient genomes has provided unique insights into human prehistory, and differences between modern humans and other branches like Neanderthals can enrich our understanding of the molecular basis of unique modern human traits. Modern human variation and the interactions between different hominin lineages are now well studied, making it reasonable to go beyond fixed genetic changes and explore changes that are observed at high frequency in present-day humans. Here, we identify 571 genes with non-synonymous changes at high frequency. We suggest that molecular mechanisms in cell division and networks affecting cellular features of neurons were prominently modified by these changes. Complex phenotypes in brain growth trajectory and cognitive traits are likely influenced by these networks and other non-coding changes presented here. We propose that at least some of these changes contributed to uniquely human traits, and should be prioritized for experimental validation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Kuhlwilm
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain.
- University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
- UB Institute of Complex Systems, Barcelona, Spain.
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48
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Librado P, Orlando L. Detecting Signatures of Positive Selection along Defined Branches of a Population Tree Using LSD. Mol Biol Evol 2019; 35:1520-1535. [PMID: 29617830 PMCID: PMC5967574 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msy053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying the genomic basis underlying local adaptation is paramount to evolutionary biology, and bears many applications in the fields of conservation biology, crop, and animal breeding, as well as personalized medicine. Although many approaches have been developed to detect signatures of positive selection within single populations and population pairs, the increasing wealth of high-throughput sequencing data requires improved methods capable of handling multiple, and ideally large number of, populations in a single analysis. In this study, we introduce LSD (levels of exclusively shared differences), a fast and flexible framework to perform genome-wide selection scans, along the internal and external branches of a given population tree. We use forward simulations to demonstrate that LSD can identify branches targeted by positive selection with remarkable sensitivity and specificity. We illustrate a range of potential applications by analyzing data from the 1000 Genomes Project and uncover a list of adaptive candidates accompanying the expansion of anatomically modern humans out of Africa and their spread to Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Librado
- Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Laboratoire d’Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d’Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
- Corresponding author: E-mail:
| | - Ludovic Orlando
- Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Laboratoire d’Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d’Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
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49
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Bitarello BD, de Filippo C, Teixeira JC, Schmidt JM, Kleinert P, Meyer D, Andrés AM. Signatures of Long-Term Balancing Selection in Human Genomes. Genome Biol Evol 2018; 10:939-955. [PMID: 29608730 PMCID: PMC5952967 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evy054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Balancing selection maintains advantageous diversity in populations through various mechanisms. Although extensively explored from a theoretical perspective, an empirical understanding of its prevalence and targets lags behind our knowledge of positive selection. Here, we describe the Non-central Deviation (NCD), a simple yet powerful statistic to detect long-term balancing selection (LTBS) that quantifies how close frequencies are to expectations under LTBS, and provides the basis for a neutrality test. NCD can be applied to a single locus or genomic data, and can be implemented considering only polymorphisms (NCD1) or also considering fixed differences with respect to an outgroup (NCD2) species. Incorporating fixed differences improves power, and NCD2 has higher power to detect LTBS in humans under different frequencies of the balanced allele(s) than other available methods. Applied to genome-wide data from African and European human populations, in both cases using chimpanzee as an outgroup, NCD2 shows that, albeit not prevalent, LTBS affects a sizable portion of the genome: ∼0.6% of analyzed genomic windows and 0.8% of analyzed positions. Significant windows (P < 0.0001) contain 1.6% of SNPs in the genome, which disproportionally fall within exons and change protein sequence, but are not enriched in putatively regulatory sites. These windows overlap ∼8% of the protein-coding genes, and these have larger number of transcripts than expected by chance even after controlling for gene length. Our catalog includes known targets of LTBS but a majority of them (90%) are novel. As expected, immune-related genes are among those with the strongest signatures, although most candidates are involved in other biological functions, suggesting that LTBS potentially influences diverse human phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bárbara D Bitarello
- Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.,Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cesare de Filippo
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - João C Teixeira
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Unit of Human Evolutionary Genetics, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Joshua M Schmidt
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Philip Kleinert
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Computational Molecular Biology Department, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
| | - Diogo Meyer
- Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Aida M Andrés
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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50
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Schlebusch CM, Jakobsson M. Tales of Human Migration, Admixture, and Selection in Africa. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2018; 19:405-428. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genom-083117-021759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
In the last three decades, genetic studies have played an increasingly important role in exploring human history. They have helped to conclusively establish that anatomically modern humans first appeared in Africa roughly 250,000–350,000 years before present and subsequently migrated to other parts of the world. The history of humans in Africa is complex and includes demographic events that influenced patterns of genetic variation across the continent. Through genetic studies, it has become evident that deep African population history is captured by relationships among African hunter–gatherers, as the world's deepest population divergences occur among these groups, and that the deepest population divergence dates to 300,000 years before present. However, the spread of pastoralism and agriculture in the last few thousand years has shaped the geographic distribution of present-day Africans and their genetic diversity. With today's sequencing technologies, we can obtain full genome sequences from diverse sets of extant and prehistoric Africans. The coming years will contribute exciting new insights toward deciphering human evolutionary history in Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carina M. Schlebusch
- Human Evolution, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden;,
- Centre for Anthropological Research and Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa
- SciLifeLab, SE-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Mattias Jakobsson
- Human Evolution, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden;,
- Centre for Anthropological Research and Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, 2006 Johannesburg, South Africa
- SciLifeLab, SE-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden
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