Journal
CURRENT BIOLOGY
Volume 29, Issue 1, Pages 120-+Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.065
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Donders-Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Departments of Human-Genetics and Cognitive Neuroscience (Radboud University Medical Centre), MPI for Psycholinguistics
- BBMRI-NL
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) [FP7/2007-2013: 602450, 602805]
- BMBF Germany [01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, 01ZZ0403, 03IS2061A, 03ZIK012]
- Ministry of Cultural Affairs & Social Ministry of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania
- Siemens Healthineers
- German Research Foundation [GR-1912/5-1]
- NIH [1-U24-RR021992, 1-U24-RR025736-01]
- Hersenstichting-Nederland
- Federal State
- [NIH-U54-EB020403]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
One of the features that distinguishes modern humans from our extinct relatives and ancestors is a globular shape of the braincase [1-4]. As the endocranium closely mirrors the outer shape of the brain, these differences might reflect altered neural architecture [4, 5]. However, in the absence of fossil brain tissue, the underlying neuroanatomical changes as well as their genetic bases remain elusive. To better understand the biological foundations of modern human endocranial shape, we turn to our closest extinct relatives: the Neandertals. Interbreeding between modern humans and Neandertals has resulted in introgressed fragments of Neandertal DNA in the genomes of present-day non-Africans [6, 7]. Based on shape analyses of fossil skull endocasts, we derive a measure of endocranial globularity from structural MRI scans of thousands of modern humans and study the effects of introgressed fragments of Neandertal DNA on this phenotype. We find that Neandertal alleles on chromosomes 1 and 18 are associated with reduced endocranial globularity. These alleles influence expression of two nearby genes, UBR4 and PHLPP1, which are involved in neurogenesis and myelination, respectively. Our findings show how integration of fossil skull data with archaic genomics and neuroimaging can suggest developmental mechanisms that may contribute to the unique modern human endocranial shape.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available