Science: Changes in a single gene distinguish modern humans from Neanderthals?

Human evolution is often thought to be an ancient phenomenon that seems to have occurred only to human ancestors millions of years ago.
, evolutionary geneticists have found that human evolution continues due to genetic mutations and natural selection.
simple evolution refers to genetic mutations (normal changes in genes during DNA replication).
genetic mutations occur occasionally in humans because parents pass on genes that carry certain specific symptoms to their offspring.
these gene transfers may occur through natural selection, and carriers of dominant genes are better able to survive, adapt to the environment, and reproduce offspring.
from humans walking upright with two feet to birds flying with their wings open, the adaptability of each creature can eventually be traced back to natural selection: the inheritance of generations of dominant genes.
Neanderthals and Denisovans lived about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, and many close human relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans, were extinct over the course of their evolutionary history, leaving us to live and breed in this world.
is it just pure luck, or do we have any unique advantages? Evolutionary research relies primarily on genetics and fossil analysis to explore how a species changes over time.
neither method reveals much about brain development and function, as the brain is not fossilized and there are no physical records to study.
Alysson R. Muotri, a professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has long studied how the brain develops and what causes neurological disorders.
at the same time, I'm curious about the evolution of the human brain, what changed us, how did our brain evolve? Given the brain-free fossils, Muotri uses stem cells, a self-renewing pregeneration of other cell types that can be used to build brain organs -- "mini-brains" in laboratory dishes -- a tool that is not often used for evolutionary reconstruction.
Muotri and colleagues pioneered the use of stem cells to compare humans with other primates, such as chimpanzees and bonobos.
results were published in Science on February 11 this year.
Reintroduction of the archaic variant of NOVA1 in cortical organoids alters neurodevelopment. DOI: 10.1126/science.aax2537Muotri's team analyzed the differences between the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals and Denisovans and found 61 different genes, of which NOVA1 is the primary gene regulator that affects the shearing of other genes in brain development.
NOVA1 gene. Does the mutation in the NOVA1 gene make us different from the brains of other close human relatives? To answer this question, Muotri's team used CRISPR gene editing techniques to edit stem cells from modern humans, introducing mutations in the Neanderthal NOVA1 gene that simulate "Neanderthalized" brain organs.
The brain organ body is a group of microcephaly cells formed by stem cells, and although it lacks connectivity to other systemic organs and does not have any function, it is a useful model for studying genetics, disease development, response to infections and therapeutic drugs.
Muotri's team optimized the process of making brain organs to achieve organized electrical oscillation waves similar to those produced by the human brain.
Neanderthal genes alter the neurodevelopmental Neanderthal brain in modern human brain organs, and the modern human brain looks very different and has a very different shape to the naked eye alone.
further study found that modern and Neanderthal brains have different ways of cell proliferation and synapses -- connections between neurons -- and even proteins involved in synapses.
electrical impulse signals are out of step during the development of neanderthal-like brain organs.
we don't know how and when this change will occur during evolution," Muotri said.
but it seems important and explains some of the social behaviors, language, adaptability, creativity, and ability to use technology in our modern world.
future, the researchers plan to further analyze the remaining 60 genes.
may be in it, but there are other secrets that make us modern human beings.
look forward to this new combination of stem cell biology, neuroscience and paleogenomics.
can apply modern human comparison methods to other extinct apes, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, using brain organ tissue that carries genetic variations from their ancestors, a whole new area of research.