Genome complexity: a sapiens language gene (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 18:22 (17 days ago) @ David Turell

A major control gene:

https://www.livescience.com/health/genetics/speech-gene-seen-only-in-modern-humans-may-...

"A specific gene variant seen in people is likely one of many that contributed to the development of language in modern humans, scientists say. And it changes how mice squeak.

"Scientists have identified a gene that may have played a role in the emergence of spoken language in modern humans, or Homo sapiens.

"The gene, called NOVA1, carries instructions for a protein that plays a crucial role in brain development by binding to and regulating genetic material called RNA in neurons. Among other functions, RNA acts as an intermediary to relay blueprints from the genome to protein-construction sites inside cells. Although other mammals also have the NOVA1 gene, modern humans carry a special version in which one building block of the resulting protein is swapped with another. Specifically, a compound called isoleucine is replaced with valine.

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"...the researchers found that the human version of NOVA1 seemed to change the frequency, pitch and musicality of squeaks made by baby mice. The human gene variant also influenced the melody and articulation of mating calls made by adult male mice to female mice, compared with the "typical" calls made by unmodified mice. (The modified mice did not start speaking like tiny humans at any point.)

"Taken together, these findings provide further evidence for the role of NOVA1 in vocalization. But what could this tell us about how spoken language first appeared in H. sapiens?

"To answer this question, the researchers analyzed eight genomes from living people as well as four genomes from our ancient human relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans. It turns out that neither of those relatives carried the same version of NOVA1 that we do, confirming earlier research conducted by other scientists.

"This finding suggests that the building-block swap in NOVA1 may have benefited H. sapiens by somehow enabling spoken language, and therefore, the trait would have been selected for over evolutionary time because it aided survival. As such, it increased in frequency within the population. Indeed, in the same study, the researchers looked at 650,000 modern human genomes in a database and found that all but six carried the human NOVA1 variant.

"Despite these findings, the researchers cautioned against concluding that they've identified a single "human language gene." It's likely that, in addition to NOVA1, other genes helped modern humans begin speaking.

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"'We think it's hard science that NOVA[1] has an entirely human-specific variant that no other species we know of ever had," Darnell said, "and we can correlate that variant with changes in vocalization and language." Nonetheless, there are likely many genes, including FOXP2, that may be involved in language development in modern humans, he added."

Comment: it is not surprising we have or own language gene.