Evidence of a Conserved Molecular Response to Selection for Increased Brain Size in Primates.

ABSTRACT: The adaptive significance of human brain evolution has been frequently studied through comparisons with other primates. However, the evolution of increased brain size is not restricted to the human lineage but is a general characteristic of primate evolution. Whether or not these independent episodes of increased brain size share a common genetic basis is unclear. We sequenced and de novo assembled the transcriptome from the neocortical tissue of the most highly encephalized nonhuman primate, the tufted capuchin monkey (Cebus apella). Using this novel data set, we conducted a genome-wide analysis of orthologous brain-expressed protein coding genes to identify evidence of conserved gene-phenotype associations and species-specific adaptations during three independent episodes of brain size i

SUBMITTER: Boddy AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5381557 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature