Posted on 01/02/2006 3:08:53 PM PST by MRMEAN
A group of researchers from Korea and Japan has deciphered the Y chromosome of chimpanzees' genetic code, getting a step closer to solving the mysteries surrounding human evolution. It is well known that we share more than 98 percent of our DNA and almost all of our genes with the chimpanzee. Now the researchers have decoded more than half of the Y chromosomes, or 12.7 million base pairs, of man's closest living relative.
"Because no genetic exchange occurs, the Y chromosome is important in explaining the evolution process," said Park Hong-seog, a senior researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB). Dr. Park's team at KRIBB and Japan's Riken Genomic Sciences Center discovered that chimps have 19 active genes in their Y chromosomes while humans have 20, with the extra one, called CD24L4, linked to immune-related and infectious diseases. That confirms why humans and chimpanzees both contract diseases like tuberculosis, measles and even food poisoning but only humans are vulnerable to AIDS, Alzheimer's and asthma.
The research also confirms the view that humans and chimpanzees started evolving differently about 5 to 6 million years ago and humans evolved much faster due to different mating habits: chimps are polygamous. The teams published their findings in January's first online edition of Nature Genetics.
Arirang News http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200601/200601020010.html
Comparative analysis of chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes unveils complex evolutionary pathway Yoko Kuroki1, Atsushi Toyoda1, Hideki Noguchi1, 2, Todd D Taylor1, Takehiko Itoh3, Dae-Soo Kim4, Dae-Won Kim4, 5, Sang-Haeng Choi4, Il-Chul Kim4, Han Ho Choi4, Yong Sung Kim4, Yoko Satta6, Naruya Saitou7, Tomoyuki Yamada2, Shinichi Morishita2, Masahira Hattori1, 8, Yoshiyuki Sakaki1, Hong-Seog Park4, 5 & Asao Fujiyama1, 9
1 RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan.
2 Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-0882, Japan.
3 Mitsubishi Research Institute, Tokyo 100-8141, Japan.
4 Genome Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon 305-333, Korea.
5 University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-333, Korea.
6 The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Hayama 240-0193, Japan.
7 National Institute of Genetics, Mishima 411-8540, Japan.
8 Kitasato University, Sagamihara 228-8555, Japan.
9 National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo 101-8430, Japan.
Correspondence should be addressed to Hong-Seog Park hspark@kribb.re.kr or Asao Fujiyama afujiyam@nii.ac.jp
The mammalian Y chromosome has unique characteristics compared with the autosomes or X chromosomes. Here we report the finished sequence of the chimpanzee Y chromosome (PTRY), including 271 kb of the Y-specific pseudoautosomal region 1 and 12.7 Mb of the male-specific region of the Y chromosome. Greater sequence divergence between the human Y chromosome (HSAY) and PTRY (1.78%) than between their respective whole genomes (1.23%) confirmed the accelerated evolutionary rate of the Y chromosome. Each of the 19 PTRY protein-coding genes analyzed had at least one nonsynonymous substitution, and 11 genes had higher nonsynonymous substitution rates than synonymous ones, suggesting relaxation of selective constraint, positive selection or both. We also identified lineage-specific changes, including deletion of a 200-kb fragment from the pericentromeric region of HSAY, expansion of young Alu families in HSAY and accumulation of young L1 elements and long terminal repeat retrotransposons in PTRY. Reconstruction of the common ancestral Y chromosome reflects the dynamic changes in our genomes in the 5–6 million years since speciation.
Scientists Find Evolution Clue in Chimp DNA
so basically, chimps came from arabs?
Hah? Wouldn't that make them evolve faster?
I hought it was a DU article. LOL.
"humans evolved much faster due to different mating habits: chimps are polygamous."
Oh, so monogamy is good for evolution? Hmmm. Gotta wonder why all them folks with Darwin anti-fish on the backs of their cars always seem to disdain monogamy and marriage, and yet consider themselves somehow more "evolved." Typical leftist irrationalism, I guess.
Ummm.. As a general rule, so are humans..
No human population to my knowledge is or ever has been monogamous. Social institutions and cultural ideals tend to be; sexual behavior isn't. Evolution doesn't care whether the 'polygamy' is ordained or endorsed. LOL
Well, someone did suggest that chimps a devolution FROM humans. Seriously, did they just say that humans are natural monogamous?
Just another chimp chip in the big hard drive of life. This hard drive is getting more complicated with each discovery of another chip. I'm betting on a system Crash.
"No human population to my knowledge is or ever has been monogamous."
Well, then, what is this amorphous state of "non-polygamy," that hastened the evolution of humans, as opposed to chimpanzees, then, if it's not monogamy?
Or, perhaps the author is merely full of crap?
Humans have the ability to choose to be monogamous. Apparently the apes have never given the matter any thought ;-).
In that respect, the author is with absolute certainty full of crap. For one thing, monogamous social institutions are without doubt a relatively modern innovation, and certainly innaplicable five thousand years ago, much less five million years ago. By 'nature' so to speak, humans are not even remotely monogamous. Monogamy is a social construct. (Of course, it is our 'nature' to be social, but that's a whole 'nother subject.)
I personally doubt any hominids gave it much thought five million years ago..
It almost sounds as if the notorious Hwang Woo Suk might've had a hand in this one too, lol.
"Oh, so monogamy is good for evolution?"
There is certainly a lot more chance for genetic divergence. In other words, there is not as much comingling of the genetic material. Hence, there will be more seperation of groups with different genetic makeup.
YEC INTREP
I would suspect that monogamy is good for natural selection. Being choosy about one's mate would produce stronger offspring than mating with multiple partners at random. But natural selection is not evolution, though evolutionists often try to confuse the two since there's lots of observable evidence for natural selection while macro-evolution is speculative.
Incidentally, if evolution is true, one would think polygamy would advance evolution by increasing the number of birth events per capita and thus the number of positive mutations which allegedly are the thing that brought us up from the primordial slime.
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