Zhang Yong E, Long Manyuan
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution & State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, Chicago, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2014 Dec;29:90-6. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2014.08.013. Epub 2014 Sep 16.
New genes in human genomes have been found relevant in evolution and biology of humans. It was conservatively estimated that the human genome encodes more than 300 human-specific genes and 1000 primate-specific genes. These new arrivals appear to be implicated in brain function and male reproduction. Surprisingly, increasing evidence indicates that they may also bring negative pleiotropic effects, while assuming various possible biological functions as sources of phenotypic novelties, suggesting a non-progressive route for functional evolution. Similar to these fixed new genes, polymorphic new genes were found to contribute to functional evolution within species, for example, with respect to digestion or disease resistance, revealing that new genes can acquire new or diverged functions in its initial stage as prototypic genes. These progresses have provided new opportunities to explore the genetic basis of human biology and human evolutionary history in a new dimension.
人类基因组中的新基因已被发现与人类的进化和生物学相关。据保守估计，人类基因组编码超过300个人类特异性基因和1000个灵长类特异性基因。这些新出现的基因似乎与脑功能和男性生殖有关。令人惊讶的是，越来越多的证据表明，它们可能也会带来负面的多效性影响，同时作为表型新奇性的来源承担各种可能的生物学功能，这表明功能进化存在一条非渐进的途径。与这些固定的新基因类似，多态性新基因被发现有助于物种内的功能进化，例如在消化或抗病方面，这表明新基因在其作为原型基因的初始阶段就可以获得新的或分化的功能。这些进展为从新的维度探索人类生物学和人类进化历史的遗传基础提供了新的机会。
