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- Title
Transgenic rhesus monkeys carrying the human MCPH1 gene copies show human-like neoteny of brain development.
- Authors
Shi, Lei; Luo, Xin; Jiang, Jin; Chen, Yongchang; Liu, Cirong; Hu, Ting; Li, Min; Lin, Qiang; Li, Yanjiao; Huang, Jun; Wang, Hong; Niu, Yuyu; Shi, Yundi; Styner, Martin; Wang, Jianhong; Lu, Yi; Sun, Xuejin; Yu, Hualin; Ji, Weizhi; Su, Bing
- Abstract
Brain size and cognitive skills are the most dramatically changed traits in humans during evolution and yet the genetic mechanisms underlying these human-specific changes remain elusive. Here, we successfully generated 11 transgenic rhesus monkeys (8 first-generation and 3 second-generation) carrying human copies of MCPH1 , an important gene for brain development and brain evolution. Brain-image and tissue-section analyses indicated an altered pattern of neural-cell differentiation, resulting in a delayed neuronal maturation and neural-fiber myelination of the transgenic monkeys, similar to the known evolutionary change of developmental delay (neoteny) in humans. Further brain-transcriptome and tissue-section analyses of major developmental stages showed a marked human-like expression delay of neuron differentiation and synaptic-signaling genes, providing a molecular explanation for the observed brain-developmental delay of the transgenic monkeys. More importantly, the transgenic monkeys exhibited better short-term memory and shorter reaction time compared with the wild-type controls in the delayed-matching-to-sample task. The presented data represent the first attempt to experimentally interrogate the genetic basis of human brain origin using a transgenic monkey model and it values the use of non-human primates in understanding unique human traits.
- Subjects
RHESUS monkeys; HUMAN genes; NEURONAL differentiation; COGNITIVE ability; HUMAN evolution; NEURAL development; AMYLOID plaque
- Publication
National Science Review, 2019, Vol 6, Issue 3, p480
- ISSN
2095-5138
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/nsr/nwz043