Science News‘s Tina Hesman Saey appears to have an exclusive on this. Of course, she’s a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and probably one of only a handful of journalists attending the International Congress of Human Genetics in Montreal this week.
She writes that Seattle researchers have discovered a mutation–a duplication of a gene that helps brain cells move around–that occurred 2.4 million years ago, long after our separation from the ape lineages. Today every human has that duplicated gene, indicating quite strongly that it confers an evolutionary advantage. Brain cells that can move better might have led to the building of extra layers of the cortex, the part of the brain where higher functions reside, Saey writes.
Yes, it’s a big leap in interpretation but, she cites an outside expert as saying that the finding represents more work than has ever been done to link a genetic difference between humans and apes to higher brain function.
-Boyce Rensberger
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