PolyQ length-based molecular encoding of vocalization frequency in FOXP2.

ABSTRACT: The transcription factor FOXP2, a regulator of vocalization- and speech/language-related phenotypes, contains two long polyQ repeats (Q₁ and Q₂) displaying marked, still enigmatic length variation across mammals. We found that the Q₁/Q₂ length ratio quantitatively encodes vocalization frequency ranges, from the infrasonic to the ultrasonic, displaying striking convergent evolution patterns. Thus, species emitting ultrasonic vocalizations converge with bats in having a low ratio, whereas species vocalizing in the low-frequency/infrasonic range converge with elephants and whales, which have higher ratios. Similar, taxon-specific patterns were observed for the FOXP2-related protein FOXP1. At the molecular level, we observed that the FOXP2 polyQ trac

SUBMITTER: Vaglietti S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10582585 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature