Transcriptional neoteny in the human brain

In development, timing is of the utmost importance, and the timing of developmental processes often changes as organisms evolve. In human evolution, developmental retardation, or neoteny, has been proposed as a possible mechanism that contributed to the rise of many human-specific features, includin...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 106; no. 14; pp. 5743 - 5748
Main Authors Somel, Mehmet, Franz, Henriette, Yan, Zheng, Lorenc, Anna, Guo, Song, Giger, Thomas, Kelso, Janet, Nickel, Birgit, Dannemann, Michael, Bahn, Sabine, Webster, Maree J, Weickert, Cynthia S, Lachmann, Michael, Pääbo, Svante, Khaitovich, Philipp
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 07.04.2009
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Age distribution
Animals
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
brain
Brain - growth & development
Chimpanzees
cognition
cortex
Datasets
Developmental biology
Developmental disabilities
Evolution
Gene expression
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental - genetics
Genes
Human subjects
Humans
Intellectual disabilities
Macaca mulatta
messenger RNA
neoteny
neurodevelopment
Pan troglodytes
postnatal development
Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - growth & development
Prefrontal Cortex - metabolism
Primates
RNA, Messenger - analysis
Size
Species Specificity
transcription (genetics)
transcriptome
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Summary:In development, timing is of the utmost importance, and the timing of developmental processes often changes as organisms evolve. In human evolution, developmental retardation, or neoteny, has been proposed as a possible mechanism that contributed to the rise of many human-specific features, including an increase in brain size and the emergence of human-specific cognitive traits. We analyzed mRNA expression in the prefrontal cortex of humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques to determine whether human-specific neotenic changes are present at the gene expression level. We show that the brain transcriptome is dramatically remodeled during postnatal development and that developmental changes in the human brain are indeed delayed relative to other primates. This delay is not uniform across the human transcriptome but affects a specific subset of genes that play a potential role in neural development.
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Edited by Morris Goodman, Wayne State University, School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, and approved February 18, 2009
2M.L., S.P., and P.K. contributed equally as supervisors of this study.
Author contributions: S.B., M.J.W., C.S.W., M.L., S.P., and P.K. designed research; H.F., Z.Y., A.L., and B.N. performed research; A.L., S.G., T.G., J.K., M.D., S.B., M.J.W., and C.S.W. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; M.S., M.L., and P.K. analyzed data; and M.S., M.L., S.P., and P.K. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0900544106