Leading as the feature article in Vol. 360 of Science Magazine, the Great Ape Genome project was a multi-institutional study involving over 40 scientist who generated higher quality assemblages of genomes from the great apes; humans, chimpanzee, gorillas, & orangutans. By using single-molecule, real-time (SMRT) long-read sequencing technology, the humanizing bias in previous ape genomes have been reduced allowing a more unambiguous view of genetic similarities and differences that arise as the hominin lineage diverged from the great apes. From their data, 10 million years ago the apes genome underwent a segmental duplication expansion where these sections of DNA that repeated were more prone to deletion and duplication mutations which influenced the evolutions of the various species. This support the hypothesis of bigger brain size in humans compared to other apes being due to the up-regulation of synaptic neurons in the prefrontal cortex because the gene for this neuron have been duplicate numerous times in the human genome. This article is the first step to truly understanding what makes us uniquely human because only by getting higher quality ape genome data and comprehensively comparing them can we understand our own genome and genetic difference.
-Denzel Walker
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