What Guides Differences In Human And Chimp Brain Function?
Posted on: Tuesday, 8 December 2009, 07:30 CST Humans share at least 97 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, but, as a new study of transcription factors makes clear, what you have in your genome may be less important than how you use it. The study, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that broad differences in the gene activity of humans and of chimpanzees, affecting nearly 1,000 genes, appear to be linked to the action of about 90 transcription factors. Transcription factors are proteins that bind to specific regions of the DNA to promote or repress the activity of many genes. A single transcription factor can spur the transcription of dozens of genes into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is then translated into proteins that do the work of the cell. This allows specific organs or tissues to quickly ramp up a response to an environmental change or internal need. Previous studies have found differences in gene expression between humans and chimps, particularly in t
