Antonio Benítez-Burraco; Raúl Torres-Ruiz; Pere Gelabert; Carles Lalueza-Fox; Sandra Rodríguez-Perales; Paloma García-Bellido

doi:10.14715/cmb/2022.68.11.3

Issue

Vol. 68 No. 11: Issue 11

Issue Published : April 2, 2023

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Human-specific changes in two functional enhancers of FOXP2

Evolution of FOXP2 enhancers

https://doi.org/10.14715/cmb/2022.68.11.3

Antonio Benítez-Burraco

Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Literary Theory (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain

Raúl Torres-Ruiz

Molecular Cytogenetics Group. Centro Nacional Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.

Pere Gelabert

Paleogenomics Lab, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Pompeu Fabra University), Barcelona, Spain

Carles Lalueza-Fox

Paleogenomics Lab, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Pompeu Fabra University), Barcelona, Spain

Sandra Rodríguez-Perales

Molecular Cytogenetics Group. Centro Nacional Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.

Paloma García-Bellido

Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Corresponding Author(s) : Antonio Benítez-Burraco

abenitez8@us.es

Cellular and Molecular Biology, Vol. 68 No. 11: Issue 11
Article Published : November 30, 2022

Abstract

FOXP2 is a gene involved in language development and function. Neanderthals and humans share the same coding region of the gene, although the formers are thought to have exhibited less sophisticated language abilities. In this paper, we report on several human-specific changes in two functional enhancers of FOXP2. Two of these variants are located within the binding sites for the transcription factors POLR2A and SMARCC1, respectively. Interestingly, SMARCC1 is involved in brain development and vitamin D metabolism. We hypothesize that the human specific change in this position might have resulted in a different regulation pattern of FOXP2 expression in our species compared to extinct hominins, with a potential impact on our language abilities.

Keywords

human evolution language evolution FOXP2 enhancers Neanderthals SMARCC1

Benítez-Burraco, A., Torres-Ruiz, R., Gelabert, P., Lalueza-Fox, C., Rodríguez-Perales, S., & García-Bellido, P. (2022). Human-specific changes in two functional enhancers of FOXP2 : Evolution of FOXP2 enhancers. Cellular and Molecular Biology, 68(11), 16–19. https://doi.org/10.14715/cmb/2022.68.11.3