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Author Spotlight: Exploring Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms in Fruit Flies — Genetic Models and Behavioral Tests
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Genetic diversity underlying behavioral plasticity in human adaptation.

Amy L Bauernfeind1, Courtney C Babbitt2

  • 1Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States; Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States.

Progress in Brain Research
|November 10, 2019
PubMed
Summary

Human brain evolution is complex, not unidirectional. Molecular diversity arises from gene duplications, copy number variations, and transcriptional regulation, not just genetic substitutions.

Keywords:
ChimpanzeeCopy number variationsDuplicationGene expressionPleiotropyTranscription

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genomics

Background:

  • The human brain's unique size, structure, and function distinguish it from other primates.
  • Genomics is crucial for understanding the biological basis of human brain evolution.
  • A misconception exists that brain evolution is a unidirectional process towards a singular goal.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review molecular diversity in the human brain from various sources.
  • To explore the role of gene duplications, copy number variations, and transcriptional regulation in brain evolution.
  • To highlight advancements in single-cell genomics for understanding cellular-level gene expression and human uniqueness.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on molecular diversity in the human brain.
  • Analysis of genetic substitutions, gene duplications, copy number variations, and transcriptional regulation.
  • Exploration of single-cell genomics data for gene expression patterns.

Main Results:

  • Human brain evolution is characterized by molecular diversity, not a single trajectory.
  • Genetic substitutions may have limitations due to pleiotropic effects.
  • Gene duplications, copy number variations, and transcriptional regulation are significant sources of molecular diversity.

Conclusions:

  • Variability is essential in understanding human brain evolution.
  • Non-substitution mechanisms play a critical role in shaping brain molecular diversity.
  • Single-cell genomics offers new avenues to investigate neuronal-level uniqueness in human brain evolution.