Human evolution: genes driving toward sapiens (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, April 26, 2021, 20:08 (1305 days ago) @ David Turell

A study identifying how the genome drove toward sapiens:

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-perspective-genomes-archaic-humans.html

"A genome by itself is like a recipe without a chef—full of important information, but in need of interpretation. So, even though we have sequenced genomes of our nearest extinct relatives—the Neanderthals and the Denisovans—there remain many unknowns regarding how differences in our genomes actually lead to differences in physical traits.

"'When we're looking at archaic genomes, we don't have all the layers and marks that we usually have in samples from present-day individuals that help us interpret regulation in the genome, like RNA or cell structure," said David Gokhman, a postdoctoral fellow in biology at Stanford University.

"'We just have the naked DNA sequence, and all we can really do is stare at it and hope one day we'd be able to understand what it means," he said.

***

Starting with 14,042 genetic variants unique to modern humans, the researchers found 407 that specifically contribute to differences in gene expression between modern and archaic humans. In further analysis, they determined that the differences were more likely to be associated with the vocal tract and the cerebellum, which is the part of our brain that receives sensory information and controls voluntary movement, including walking, coordination, balance and speech.

***

"In total, the researchers found 407 sequences that represented a change in expression in modern humans compared to our predecessors. Among that list, genes that affect the cerebellum and genes that affect the voice box, pharynx, larynx and vocal cords seem to be overrepresented.

"'This would suggest some kind of rapid evolution of those organs or some kind of a path that is specific to modern humans," said Gokhman. The next step, he added, would be trying to understand more about these sequences and the roles they played in the evolution of modern humans.

"Even with those unknowns, this technique by itself is a significant advance for evolutionary research, said Petrov.

"'This goes beyond the sequencing of the DNA from the Neanderthal and Denisovan bones. This begins to put meaning on those differences," said Petrov. "It's an important conceptual step from just the sequence—no tissue, no cells—to biological information and will enable many future studies.'" (my bold)

Comment: In my bold is that nasty word 'information'. This new approach is the same as the ENCODE research on modern DNA, trying to note modifying aspects of gene expression which is much more important than just looking at protein coding. The major finding fits what we already knew from archaeology, modern sapiens evolution was on a fast unnatural evolutionary drive. God may have inserted a fast-driving coded process or may have pushed it Himself.