GENOMIC CHANGES THAT DURING HUMAN ORIGINS

INCREASED THE BRAIN'S COGNITIVE CAPACITIES


Identifying the spectrum of key genomic changes that shaped human origins is a daunting but not insurmountable challenge for modern biology. Utilizing the now known DNA sequences of human and mouse genomes, the rapidly increasing number of known chimpanzee genomic DNA sequences, and the growing bodies of DNA sequence data on a wide range of primates for individual genomic loci, we are pursuing a comparative species study of genes expressed in the cerebral cortex. Our goal is to further identify important gene regulatory and coding sequence changes that were involved in the evolution of humankind's expanded cerebral cortex. Our present investigation focuses on genes expressed in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a cerebral cortical region that acquired novel histological features during more recent stages of humankind's evolutionary history.

ACC Results*

*Detailed in an article published in PNAS:

"Sister-grouping of chimpanzees and humans as revealed by genome-wide phylogenetic analysis of brain gene expression profiles." By Monica Uddin, Derek E. Wildman, Guozhen Liu, Wenbo Xu, Robert M. Johnson, Patrick R. Hof, Gregory Kapatos, Lawrence I. Grossman, and Morris Goodman. (2004). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 2957-2962.

Link to article

Affymetrix Genechip® Microarray Data Files

HG-U133A Files:                    HG-U133B Files:
Human 1                                  Human 1 
Human 2                                  Human 2
Human 3                                  Human 3
Chimpanzee 1                          Chimpanzee 1
Chimpanzee 2                          Chimpanzee 2
Gorilla 1                                   Gorilla 1
Gorilla 2                                   Gorilla 2
Macaque 1                               Macaque 1
Macaque 2                               Macaque 2
Macaque 3                               Macaque 3

Key Personnel

P.I.s

Morris Goodman, Wayne State University
Lawrence Grossman, Wayne State University
Robert Johnson, Wayne State University
Gregory Kapatos, Wayne State University

Postdoc

Monica Uddin, Wayne State University

Research Scientist

Derek Wildman, Wayne State University

Bioinformatician

Guozhen Liu, Wayne State University

Consultants

Patrick Hof, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. 00118696 and 0318375.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Founation.