Brain evolution: microcephaly genes weigh in

The microcephaly protein Asp regulates neuroepithelium morphogenesis by controlling the spatial distribution of myosin II

Mutations in ASPM are the most frequent cause of microcephaly, a disorder characterized by reduced brain size at birth. ASPM is recognized as a major regulator of brain size, yet its role during neural development remains poorly understood. Moreover, the role of ASPM proteins in invertebrate brain morphogenesis has never been investigated. Here, we characterized the function of the Drosophila ASPM orthologue, Asp, and found that asp mutants present severe defects in brain size and neuroepithelium morphogenesis. We show that size reduction depends on the mitotic function of Asp, whereas regulation of tissue shape depends on an uncharacterized function. Asp interacts with myosin II regulating its polarized distribution along the apico-basal axis. In the absence of Asp, mislocalization of myosin II results in interkinetic nuclear migration and tissue architecture defects. We propose that Asp regulates neuroepithelium morphogenesis through myosin-II-mediated structural and mechanical processes to maintain force balance and tissue cohesiveness.

Microcephaly genes and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in primate brain size

Microcephaly genes are amongst the most intensively studied genes with candidate roles in brain evolution. Early controversies surrounded the suggestion that they experienced differential selection pressures in different human populations, but several association studies failed to find any link between variation in microcephaly genes and brain size in humans. Recently, however, sex-dependent associations were found between variation in three microcephaly genes and human brain size, suggesting that these genes could contribute to the evolution of sexually dimorphic traits in the brain. Here, we test the hypothesis that microcephaly genes contribute to the evolution of sexual dimorphism in brain mass across anthropoid primates using a comparative approach. The results suggest a link between selection pressures acting on MCPH1 and CENPJ and different scores of sexual dimorphism.

Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis and the Denisova specimen: New insights on their evolutionary histories using whole-genome comparisons

After a brief review of the most recent findings in the study of human evolution, an extensive comparison of the complete genomes of our nearest relative, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), of extant Homo sapiens, archaic Homo neanderthalensis and the Denisova specimen were made. The focus was on non-synonymous mutations, which consequently had an impact on protein levels and these changes were classified according to degree of effect. A total of 10,447 non-synonymous substitutions were found in which the derived allele is fixed or nearly fixed in humans as compared to chimpanzee. Their most frequent location was on chromosome 21. Their presence was then searched in the two archaic genomes. Mutations in 381 genes would imply radical amino acid changes, with a fraction of these related to olfaction and other important physiological processes. Eight new alleles were identified in the Neanderthal and/or Denisova genetic pools. Four others, possibly affecting cognition, occured both in the sapiens and two other archaic genomes. The selective sweep that gave rise to Homo sapiens could, therefore, have initiated before the modern/archaic human divergence.

Positive selection on NIN, a gene involved in neurogenesis, and primate brain evolution

A long-held dogma in comparative neurobiology has been that the number of neurons under a given area of cortical surface is constant. As such, the attention of those seeking to understand the genetic basis of brain evolution has focused on genes with functions in the lateral expansion of the developing cerebral cortex. However, new data suggest that cortical cytoarchitecture is not constant across primates, raising the possibility that changes in radial cortical development played a role in primate brain evolution. We present the first analysis of a gene with functions relevant to this dimension of brain evolution. We show that NIN, a gene necessary for maintaining asymmetric, neurogenic divisions of radial glial cells (RGCs), evolved adaptively during anthropoid evolution. We explored how this selection relates to neural phenotypes and find a significant association between selection on NIN and neonatal brain size in catarrhines. Our analyses suggest a relationship with prenatal neurogenesis and identify the human data point as an outlier, possibly explained by postnatal changes in development on the human lineage. A similar pattern is found in platyrrhines, but the highly encephalized genus Cebus departs from the general trend. We further show that the evolution of NIN may be associated with variation in neuron number not explained by increases in surface area, a result consistent with NIN's role in neurogenic divisions of RGCs. Our combined results suggest a role for NIN in the evolution of cortical development.

Adaptive evolution of four microcephaly genes and the evolution of brain size in anthropoid primates

The anatomical basis and adaptive function of the expansion in primate brain size have long been studied; however, we are only beginning to understand the genetic basis of these evolutionary changes. Genes linked to human primary microcephaly have received much attention as they have accelerated evolutionary rates along lineages leading to humans. However, these studies focus narrowly on apes, and the link between microcephaly gene evolution and brain evolution is disputed. We analyzed the molecular evolution of four genes associated with microcephaly (ASPM, CDK5RAP2, CENPJ, MCPH1) across 21 species representing all major clades of anthropoid primates. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, positive selection was not limited to or intensified along the lineage leading to humans. In fact we show that all four loci were subject to positive selection across the anthropoid primate phylogeny. We developed clearly defined hypotheses to explicitly test if selection on these loci was associated with the evolution of brain size. We found positive relationships between both CDK5RAP2 and ASPM and neonatal brain mass and somewhat weaker relationships between these genes and adult brain size. In contrast, there is no evidence linking CENPJ and MCPH1 to brain size evolution. The stronger association of ASPM and CDK5RAP2 evolution with neonatal brain size than with adult brain size is consistent with these loci having a direct effect on prenatal neuronal proliferation. These results suggest that primate brain size may have at least a partially conserved genetic basis. Our results contradict a previous study that linked adaptive evolution of ASPM to changes in relative cortex size; however, our analysis indicates that this conclusion is not robust. Our finding that the coding regions of two widely expressed loci has experienced pervasive positive selection in relation to a complex, quantitative developmental phenotype provides a notable counterexample to the commonly asserted hypothesis that cis-regulatory regions play a dominant role in phenotypic evolution.