Evolution of the human-specific microRNA miR-941.
Nat Commun, 2012;3:1145.
Hu HY[1], He L, Fominykh K, Yan Z, Guo S, Zhang X, Taylor MS, Tang L, Li J, Liu J, Wang W, Yu H, Khaitovich P
Affiliations
PMID: 23093182DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2146
Impact factor: 17.694
Abstract
MicroRNA-mediated gene regulation is important in many physiological processes. Here we explore the roles of a microRNA, miR-941, in human evolution. We find that miR-941 emerged de novo in the human lineage, between six and one million years ago, from an evolutionarily volatile tandem repeat sequence. Its copy-number remains polymorphic in humans and shows a trend for decreasing copy-number with migration out of Africa. Emergence of miR-941 was accompanied by accelerated loss of miR-941-binding sites, presumably to escape regulation. We further show that miR-941 is highly expressed in pluripotent cells, repressed upon differentiation and preferentially targets genes in hedgehog- and insulin-signalling pathways, thus suggesting roles in cellular differentiation. Human-specific effects of miR-941 regulation are detectable in the brain and affect genes involved in neurotransmitter signalling. Taken together, these results implicate miR-941 in human evolution, and provide an example of rapid regulatory evolution in the human linage.
MeSH terms
Animals; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Dosage; Gene Expression Regulation; Genome, Human; Humans; Macaca mulatta; MicroRNAs; Pan troglodytes; Pluripotent Stem Cells; Tandem Repeat Sequences
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