Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Gene expression makes the man   posted by Razib @ 3/08/2006 12:14:00 PM
Share/Bookmark

Most Human-Chimp Differences Due to Gene Regulation - Not Genes. I don't know if this is news, but it reiterates a trend that will continue as a deeper understanding of how genes express themselves, and regulatory pathways, are explored in greater detail. The paper, Expression profiling in primates reveals a rapid evolution of human transcription factors, is out in Nature tomorrow. If natural selection is a "substrate neutral" algorithmic process (or "stochastic hill climbing"), does it really matter if it is selecting from a range of regulatory switches vs. alternative sequences?

Update: Evolgen has much more.

Related: Regional patterns of gene expression in human and chimpanzee brains.