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SCI/TECH
Research sheds light on evolution
Megan Munguia
Princetonian Staff Writer
A recently discovered brain regulatory gene
provides new evidence that humans evolved from lower primates. The
gene, prodynorphin, was discovered by a team of researchers including
Matthew Rockwell, a visiting research fellow in the Lewis- Sigler
Institute for Integrative Genomics.
Prodynorphin, which is found in the brain,
affects memory and perception. It is the body's "own form of heroin,"
Rockman said, and "makes a big difference on how people perceive
reality."
The team published its results in this month's
issue of the Public Library of Science. Their research compares the
presence of the prodynorphin gene in lower primates and humans. While
the gene that actually produces the prodynorphin appears to be the same
in all humans and in lower primates, the variations in the amount
produced from person to person and species to species suggest the
influence of regulatory DNA.
Until now, researchers have primarily focused
on protein sequences when studying gene mutations. The function of a
gene, however, can be altered without a mutation of the protein
sequence.
In fact, it is believed that much of evolution
isn't due to changes in protein sequences, but rather to changes in
regulatory DNA, which does not influence protein structure. Regulatory
DNA influences when, where and to what extent the gene is expressed.
This regulatory DNA is harder to study because it doesn't have a code
— at least, not one that is known.
Rockman's research is significant because it
represents "the very first time that we have identified a piece of
non-protein coding DNA that has been altered by natural selection,"
Rockman said.
"Finding out what this does will give us some
insight into what features of our humanness are the result of human
evolution," Rockman added. Though it is just speculation at this point,
"we can imagine that this evolutionary episode contributed to the way
we perceive the world."
Through the study of more regulatory genes,
researchers hope to better determine what role natural selection played
in the evolution of humans.
The research for this discovery was part of
Rockman's Ph.D. thesis at Duke University. As part of his postdoctoral
study at Princeton, Rockman is continuing with similar research on
regulatory genes in yeast and in C. elegans worms.
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