ArticleBrain, behavior and evolution2011
A potential role for glucose transporters in the evolution of human brain size.
Article in Brain, behavior and evolution, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Is obesity the next step in evolution through brain changes?Neuroscience applied · 2024Article
- Extensive non-coding sequence divergence between the major human pathogenFrontiers in fungal biology · 2022Article
- Inflammation: a highly conserved, Janus-like phenomenon-a gastroenterologist' perspective.Journal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany) · 2018Review
- Energetic evolution of cellular Transportomes.BMC genomics · 2018Article
- Human Brain Expansion during Evolution Is Independent of Fire Control and Cooking.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2016Article
- Analysis of synaptic gene expression in the neocortex of primates reveals evolutionary changes in glutamatergic neurotransmission.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2015Article
- Neurodevelopmental LincRNA Microsyteny Conservation and Mammalian Brain Size Evolution.PloS one · 2015Article
- Unraveling the Tangled Skein: The Evolution of Transcriptional Regulatory Networks in Development.Annual review of genomics and human genetics · 2015Review
- Physical Activity Protects the Human Brain against Metabolic Stress Induced by a Postprandial and Chronic Inflammation.Behavioural neurology · 2015Review
- Transcriptomic insights into human brain evolution: acceleration, neutrality, heterochrony.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2014Review
- Rates of evolution of hominoid seminal proteins are correlated with function and expression, rather than mating system.Journal of molecular evolution · 2014Article
- Evolution of genetic and genomic features unique to the human lineage.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2012Review
- Metabolic constraint imposes tradeoff between body size and number of brain neurons in human evolution.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2012Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Differences in cognitive abilities and the relatively large brain are among the most striking differences between humans and their closest primate relatives. The energy trade-off hypothesis predicts that a major shift in energy allocation among tissues occurred during human origins in order to support the remarkable expansion of a metabolically expensive brain. However, the molecular basis of this adaptive scenario is unknown. Two glucose transporters (SLC2A1 and SLC2A4) are promising candidates and present intriguing mutations in humans, resulting, respectively, in microcephaly and disruptions in whole-body glucose homeostasis. We compared SLC2A1 and SLC2A4 expression between humans, chimpanzees and macaques, and found compensatory and biologically significant expression changes on the human lineage within cerebral cortex and skeletal muscle, consistent with mediating an energy trade-off. We also show that these two genes are likely to have undergone adaptation and participated in the development and maintenance of a larger brain in the human lineage by modulating brain and skeletal muscle energy allocation. We found that these two genes show human-specific signatures of positive selection on known regulatory elements within their 5'-untranslated region, suggesting an adaptation of their regulation during human origins. This study represents the first case where adaptive, functional and genetic lines of evidence implicate specific genes in the evolution of human brain size.
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