ArticlePLoS biology2011
MicroRNA-driven developmental remodeling in the brain distinguishes humans from other primates.
Article in PLoS biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 126 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
126 citing papers in PubMed, 233 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regulatory Evolution and the Genetic Basis of Human Brain Expansion.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Review
- Transcriptome of fetal cortex of tree shrew underlying the emergence of outer subventricular zone.Communications biology · 2026Article
- A human-specific microRNA controls the timing of excitatory synaptogenesis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The allostery principle supports the symbolic character of signaling circuits: gene regulation provides a form of intelligence to living systems.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2026Article
- Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α: Dual roles in maintaining neuronal homeostasis and neuronal degeneration via regulation of oxidative stress, mitochondrial dynamics, and bioenergetics.Journal of physiology and biochemistry · 2026Review
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- A human iPSC-derived midbrain neural stem cell model of prenatal opioid exposure and withdrawal: A proof of concept study.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Functional Comparison of Eukaryotic Proteomes: Implications for Choosing an Appropriate Model Organism to Probe Human Biology.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- How our brains are built: emerging approaches to understand human-specific features.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2024Review
- Oxygen and the Spark of Human Brain Evolution: Complex Interactions of Metabolism and Cortical Expansion across Development and Evolution.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2024Article
- Integrated multi-omics analysis of brain aging in female nonhuman primates reveals altered signaling pathways relevant to age-related disorders.Neurobiology of aging · 2023Article
- Human-specific genetics: new tools to explore the molecular and cellular basis of human evolution.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2023Review
- Sex-biased gene and microRNA expression in the developing mouse brain is associated with neurodevelopmental functions and neurological phenotypes.Biology of sex differences · 2023Article
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- MicroRNAs' Role in Diagnosis and Treatment of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
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- Pan-cancer surveys indicate cell cycle-related roles of primate-specific genes in tumors and embryonic cerebrum.Genome biology · 2022Article
- Transposable elements contribute to the spatiotemporal microRNA landscape in human brain development.RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Article
- Article
66 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
While multiple studies have reported the accelerated evolution of brain gene expression in the human lineage, the mechanisms underlying such changes are unknown. Here, we address this issue from a developmental perspective, by analyzing mRNA and microRNA (miRNA) expression in two brain regions within macaques, chimpanzees, and humans throughout their lifespan. We find that constitutive gene expression divergence (species differences independent of age) is comparable between humans and chimpanzees. However, humans display a 3-5 times faster evolutionary rate in divergence of developmental patterns, compared to chimpanzees. Such accelerated evolution of human brain developmental patterns (i) cannot be explained by life-history changes among species, (ii) is twice as pronounced in the prefrontal cortex than the cerebellum, (iii) preferentially affects neuron-related genes, and (iv) unlike constitutive divergence does not depend on cis-regulatory changes, but might be driven by human-specific changes in expression of trans-acting regulators. We show that developmental profiles of miRNAs, as well as their target genes, show the fastest rates of human-specific evolutionary change, and using a combination of computational and experimental methods, we identify miR-92a, miR-454, and miR-320b as possible regulators of human-specific neural development. Our results suggest that different mechanisms underlie adaptive and neutral transcriptome divergence, and that changes in the expression of a few key regulators may have been a major driving force behind rapid evolution of the human brain.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.