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September 23, 2021 02:02 am
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/06EBSYcZWsc/jumping-gene-may-have-erased-tails-in-humans-and-other-apes
'Jumping Gene' May Have Erased Tails In Humans and Other Apes
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Mammals from mice to monkeys have tails. But humans and our cousins the great apes lack them. Now, researchers may have unearthed a simple genetic change that led to our abbreviated back end: an itinerant piece of DNA -- in a gene known as TBTX -- that leapt into a new chromosomal home and changed how great apes make a key developmental protein. The finding also suggests the genetic shift came with a less visible and more dangerous effect: a higher risk of birth defects involving the developing spinal cord. Mice carrying both copies of the shortened gene didn't survive, but those with one long and one short version were born with a variety of tail lengths -- from none at all to nearly normal. That suggests the shorter version of the gene interferes with tail development. Because the genetically altered mice had a mix of tail lengths, other genes must be working together to eliminate all tail development in apes and humans, but the ape-specific change "was likely a critical event" about 25 million years ago as great apes diverged from other simians. The genetically modified mice also had unusually high levels of neural tube problems, defects in the developing spinal cord. Such birth defects, which produce spina bifida, where the spinal cord doesn't close, and anencephaly, where parts of the brain and skull are missing, are fairly common in humans, affecting as many as one in 1,000 newborns. "We apparently paid a cost for the loss of the tail, and we still feel the echoes," says one author. "We must have had a clear benefit for losing the tail, whether it was improved locomotion or something else." The researchers reported their findings in a preprint posted last week on bioRxiv.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/06EBSYcZWsc/jumping-gene-may-have-erased-tails-in-humans-and-other-apes
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