Integrative Omics Reveals Rapidly Evolving Regulatory Sequences Driving Primate Brain Evolution.

ABSTRACT: Although the continual expansion of the brain during primate evolution accounts for our enhanced cognitive capabilities, the drivers of brain evolution have scarcely been explored in these ancestral nodes. Here, we performed large-scale comparative genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic analyses to investigate the evolutionary alterations acquired by brain genes and provide comprehensive listings of innovatory genetic elements along the evolutionary path from ancestral primates to human. The regulatory sequences associated with brain-expressed genes experienced rapid change, particularly in the ancestor of the Simiiformes. Extensive comparisons of single-cell and bulk transcriptomic data between primate and nonprimate brains revealed that these regulatory sequences may drive the high expr

SUBMITTER: Zhuang XL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10404817 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature