Scientists pinpoint DNA helps explain large human brains

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MEXICO: According to scientists, our ancestors’ brain were not as big as the one we have right now. Over time, as everything evolve, so is our brain. Human brain is believed to have expanded so allowing us to develop more skills to survive – from simple tools to mathematical equations and complex science.
To explain how such evolution can happen to our brain, scientists from Duke University conducted an analysis to understand so.
For their study, the researchers selected key genetic differences and then tracked the changes to brain development using mouse embryos. Based on their observation, there is a gene activity regulator in our brain and they called it HARE5. This regulator of activity increased the size of humans to 12 percent based on the sequence they created. This regulator though is not available on chimps brain making scientists believe that this could be reason why the chimps did not evolve like humans in term of intelligence and brain size.
“I think we’ve just scratched the surface, in terms of what we can gain from this sort of study. There are some other really compelling candidates that we found that may also lead us to a better understanding of the uniqueness of the human brain,” said Debra Silver, an assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology in the Duke University Medical School in a statement.
According to the researchers, they mined genomic databases from humans and chimps to find enhancers expressed in the brain tissue early in development. The priority was on enhancers which showed stark differences between the two species.
The researchers found 106 possible candidates that contribute to human and brain development. It was narrowed down to six, and they were called HARE1 up to 6.
“What’s really exciting about this was that the activity differences were detected at a critical time in brain development: when neural progenitor cells are proliferating and expanding in number, just prior to producing neurons,” said Silver.