GoKawiil
Tech News
A Nature paper by Yan et al. used genomics tools to catalog genetic variants, genes and pathways that distinguish the human skeleton from those of chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. The work builds on the long-standing idea that human-ape differences arise more from regulatory changes in gene expression than from changes in protein-coding sequences themselves.
Researchers compared genomes from over 100 non-human great apes—including bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans—against thousands of human genomes to identify DNA substitutions unique and fixed in humans. They applied strict filtering criteria involving sequencing depth, genotype quality and allelic balance, then cross-checked results against archaic human genomes from Neanderthals and Denisovans, producing a curated set of human-specific variants for further functional testing via a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA).