In this study, we found stretches of DNA that evolved much more quickly than others. We believe that these fast-evolving stretches were crucial to our human ancestors becoming distinct from our closest primate relatives. These stretches are called human accelerated regions, or HARs, so-called because they mutate at a relatively fast rate. In addition, the majority of HARs dont appear to encode specific genes. The research team hypothesized that HARs instead acted as enhancers, controlling when and for how long certain genes were switched on during embryonic development. Through experiments in embryonic animal models, combined with powerful computational genomics analyses, the research team identified more than 2,600 HARs. Then, they created a program called EnhancerFinder to whittle down that list to just the HARs were likely to be enhancers. sciencedaily/releases/2013/11/131110204417.htm
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 22:42:11 +0000
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