Human FOXP2 "Knock-in" Mice

In chapter 2 of NOT A CHIMP I report that Wolfgang Enard, at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, was about to do experiments where the human version of the FOXP2 "language gene" has been "knocked in" to mice. The human FOXP2 protein differs from the version in chimps by two amino-acid substitutions. Interestingly they now report, in the May 29th edition of Cell, that the "mice with the human FOXP2 show changes in brain circuits that have been previously linked to human speech. Intriguingly enough, the genetically altered mouse pups also have qualitative differences in ultrasonic vocalizations they use when placed outside the comfort of their mothers' nests". Enard's "knock in" research nicely mimics Joseph Buxbaum's "knock out" research, reported in my book, where he knocked out the murine FOXP2 from mice and noticed severe developmental abnormalities when both copies of the gene were knocked out, but when only one copy was removed the pups failed to produce the same ultrasonic distress calls noted by Enard. Physorg reports Enard's group as saying: "Since patients that carry one nonfunctional FOXP2 allele show impairments in the timing and sequencing of orofacial movements, one possibility is that the amino acid substitutions in FOXP2 contributed to an increased fine-tuning of motor control necessary for articulation, i.e. the unique human capacity to learn and coordinate the muscle movements in lungs, larynx, tongue and lips that are necessary for speech."