Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
The Evolution Of Gene Regulation
Really interesting article by Miranda Robertson about the need to look outside gene number and small changes to DNA sequence for the explanation for organismal diversity and complexity. The article pays due homage to the path-breaking work in the 1970s of Allan Wilson and Mary-Claire King and others - well before the day of modern genomics technology - in pointing the finger at gene regulation, rather than sequence evolution in genes. Robertson then up-dates this picture by looking at RNA regulation.
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