Researchers studied CpG islands and methylation sites on chromosomes 21 and 22 in both humans and chimpanzees. It is believed that these differences in methylation cause minute transcriptional differences, resulting in small phenotypic changes. Interestingly, many of the genes showing interspecific differences are those that affect disease in humans, such as the Alzheimer's-associated APP, which was found to be more heavily methylated at exon 7 in humans. The ramifications of this study are as-yet unclear, particularly because manifestation of the disease is either markedly different or nonexistent in non-human primates.
Source: Click Here! (Journal of Human Genetics, 2013)
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