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Research Suggests Apes and Humans Separated By a Single Gene

Posted by timothy on from the nothing-between-me-and-calvins dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers believe that they have found the definitive difference between humans and other primates, and they think that the difference all comes down to a single gene."

44 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Uh huh. by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 5, Funny

    And some are separated by less.

    1. Re:Uh huh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I was gonna says it's the Hy-gene, but ...you're right.
      Damn smelly geeks

    2. Re:Uh huh. by H0p313ss · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oook?

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    3. Re:Uh huh. by war4peace · · Score: 5, Insightful

      After watching human beings for over 3 decades, that gene is rare. Very rare.

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    4. Re:Uh huh. by pitchpipe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      yeah, blacks

      No. Racists: If ever there was a more ignorant, backward way of thinking than racism, it'd be done by something that lived in a slime mold at the bottom of a swamp. But then again, I think that I've just insulted things that live in slime molds.

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    5. Re:Uh huh. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      That's your opinion and you're welcome to it. Still wrong though.

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    6. Re:Uh huh. by H0p313ss · · Score: 2

      Says the guy who links to a wiki about the most unwitty, unclever and unintelligent works of fiction ever made.

      You must be a blast at parties.

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    7. Re:Uh huh. by VortexCortex · · Score: 3, Interesting

      yeah, blacks

      No. Racists

      Woah, slow down... Why pull the "racist" card? Isn't that precisely what genetics is about? I'm not a racist but I think they might have a valid point. Our ancestors with dark skin weren't the result of breeding with Neanderthals, but the light skinned folks were. So, hmm, I don't know if you'd say blacks were closer to being apes, but whites are more likely to carry Neanderthal genes as well as homsapien genes. That probably means they're further from apes if you measure "distance" by genetic differentiation. If you count that merging as a node in the graph, that's one more node further, no? Not that it matters much, I'm sure there's been sufficient cross breeding that you'd have a hard time finding anyone alive without Neanderthal genes.

    8. Re:Uh huh. by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Btw skinhead, "aryan" is a word that includes a fuckton of Indians.

      Metric, or Imperial?

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    9. Re:Uh huh. by Mal-2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have a group of friends in which we frequently call each other "monkeys" -- but there is no racism whatsoever to it. If you see someone imitating someone else (even if it's because it's a good idea), they're a monkey. If they're making lots of noise and gesticulating wildly -- monkey. Repeating something useless out of habit -- monkey. Climbing over furniture or other objects not meant to be traversed -- monkey. Getting on the stage via the scaffolding instead of the stairs (sometimes it's far easier to come on from the back or other unintended route than to wade through people and gear) -- monkey. If anyone asks, we always say "everyone is a monkey part of the time", and if asked about racism we say "who cares, in 500 years, EVERYONE will be brown". One of our group became known as "monkey boy" for his habit of climbing poles or other structures to try to spot people in a crowded room, rather than trying to hunt them down in a crowded venue. (I don't blame him, he's short.)

      So no, calling someone a monkey can be completely non-racial.

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    10. Re:Uh huh. by CAIMLAS · · Score: 2

      I'm not saying you're wrong in the general sentiment of your statement (racism is wrong), but: what is intrinsically wrong with saying races/ethnicities are different? We know that they are - it's intellectually dishonest to say otherwise. Different genes are present, and different genes express more strongly in different races. How, and why, is it wrong to say "sickle cell anemia is bad" or "red hair is bad"?

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    11. Re:Uh huh. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The whole black people are monkeys thing is purely a US idiom. In the rest of the English-speaking world, there isn't that connotation and it's fairly common to call people (of any phenotype) monkeys with no racist overtones. That's part of the reason why the celebrity apes thing seemed so weird to the rest of us. It's not even universal in the USA. A lot of people called GWB a chimp, but there's no indication that anyone thought that he was black...

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  2. The gene position, of course, is by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2

    501

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    1. Re:The gene position, of course, is by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Funny

      To be pedantic, there are actually a pair of genes at that location.

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      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    2. Re:The gene position, of course, is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Didn't realize that you were a man of the cloth.

      501? Man of the cloth? Are we talking about Levis?

    3. Re:The gene position, of course, is by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 2

      It's very unlikely it codes for sentience.

      But the real question is what would happen if we activated it in a higher primate, like a chimp.

      Of course I don't even want to begin to imaging the ethical dilemmas of that experiment, since it would amount to creating the first sentient member of a new species if it succeeded.

    4. Re:The gene position, of course, is by Nadaka · · Score: 2

      No, all of Japans trans species genetic experiments involve actual physical breeding. Just ask the squid monster.

    5. Re:The gene position, of course, is by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Informative

      More than that, if they're right, then introducing that gene into other species should make them sentient?.

      No beacuse other ape species are sentient anyway.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    6. Re:The gene position, of course, is by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Sentient" merely means aware. A snail is sentient. The proper word is "sapient".

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    7. Re:The gene position, of course, is by budgenator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Gorillas such as Koko, when taught sign language are scary smart, even without the gene.

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  3. Uplift by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

    If this is indeed true, you know somebody is going to try it.

    (Although the reverse experiment has apparently been done, a casual perusal of C-span makes that obvious.)

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    1. Re: Uplift by Dupple · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, I'll be a monkeys uncle!

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    2. Re:Uplift by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Informative

      In case you don't get the parent post's literary allusion, he's talking about David Brin's Uplift series which starts with the novel Sundiver . It's a science fiction work based on the idea that human intelligence is due to ancient interference by a mysterious alien race. I re-read it recently; enjoyable stuff and much less dated than one would expect.

    3. Re:Uplift by H0p313ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's a science fiction work based on the idea that human intelligence is due to ancient interference by a mysterious alien race

      Actually it's not that clear, in the series Humanity is often referred to as a "wolfling" species. It is unclear to all players on the Galactic scene if there was an unknown "uplifter" or Humanity is one of the rare exceptions in the Galaxy.

      This uncertainty always seemed like an allusion to human religious belief, most alien species are so convinced that it is actually impossible for a species to attain sapience without intervention that they'll even go to war over it. Intelligent Design anyone?

      Note that I am not suggesting that Brin is promoting intelligent design, I'm pointing out that most of the aliens in the series are as delusional as the religious types who refuse to accept the universe for what it is beyond their very narrow beliefs.

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    4. Re:Uplift by H0p313ss · · Score: 3

      Pfft, who are you to judge their beliefs?

      I don't judge them, I also don't kill them. If you consider the past 2000 years of history, the same cannot be said for most religious groups. (Some more than others... like Christians....)

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      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    5. Re:Uplift by H0p313ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You guys who constantly judge the actions of Christians of many years ago would do well to see how much worse the non-Christians were.

      Right, I keep forgetting, crimes against humanity are justified if you can find a worse one that you can blame on someone else, my mistake.

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      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
  4. To the anonymous submitter: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why don't you link to the original article?

    1. Re:To the anonymous submitter: by RDW · · Score: 5, Informative

      Most likely it's way too technical for today's /. average reader and editor.

      ...and probably because the conclusions of the paper have very little in common with the massively hyped version on medicaldaily.com. The original authors are much more cautious (and certainly don't claim that this is _the_ difference):

      "Taken together, the unusual features of miR-941 evolution, as well as its potential association with functions linked to human longevity and cognition, suggest roles of miR-941 in the evolution of human-specific phenotypes."

    2. Re:To the anonymous submitter: by solanum · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why isn't this modded up? It's the single most useful post to this story. I've just read the actual Nature article as the submitted link was indeed horrible (with flash video auto-starting to boot), and it makes none of the claims that that the submitted article or the summary make. It is still rather interesting though.

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  5. Well, THAT explains my in-laws by igaborf · · Score: 2

    We should be serving bananas for Thanksgiving!

    1. Re:Well, THAT explains my in-laws by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 2

      Did you intend to insult your spouse, or was s/he just incidental damage?

  6. I see why now.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    a group of baboons is called a Congress...

    1. Re:I see why now.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't know if that's right. A group of baboons can usually accomplish something.

  7. Misleading summary by Fwipp · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA makes it clear that it was a difference in this gene that _started_ the divergence, between 6 and 1 million years ago. TFS makes it sound like flipping one gene would produce chimpanzees rather than humans.

    1. Re:Misleading summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The scientific paper makes no such hyperboleus claim as to have found the gene that started the divergence.

      "Taken together, the unusual features of miR-941 evolution, as well as its potential association with functions linked to human longevity and cognition, suggest roles of miR-941 in the evolution of human-specific phenotypes. "

      This is the strongest general claim the authors have in the article. Both the summary and the linked article are extremely misleading.

    2. Re:Misleading summary by Toutatis · · Score: 2

      I was thinking something similar. That separation is always expected to star by a single gene.
      This is like surprising at realizing that two branches of a tree are separated at the beginning by a single micron.

  8. Uhh, Rise of the Planet of the Something-er-Others by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 2

    Meet "Chimp 9". We gave him a gene therapy...

  9. Re:What about the "ape family"? by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

    There are a helluva lot of complexities. I think many of the differences are not necessarily in the genes themselves, but in gene expression during fetal development. So while there may be a single gene that is different as it relates to neural development, you also have to factor in the whole developmental matrix involved. I would think just throwing this gene into a fertilized chimp egg probably isn't going to get you a near-human IQ chimp, and there are a whole host of factors surrounding gene expression during fetal brain development, which will almost certainly involve many other genes.

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  10. Re:What about the "ape family"? by dissy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm still not sure. For something as complex as both of us, a single gene being able to toggle between humans and apes sounds a bit simple.

    Well yea, that's because you didn't read the article, and are ignoring all the many other genes that have been changed in the last 1-6 million years after this one first gene was changed.

  11. Feel sorry for the first mutant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I always wonder at the first human to appear.

    Looking terribly odd. No-one to talk to. Nothing to read. Nowhere to shop.

    How bleak.

  12. Not a "single gene" by nomad-9 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article is crock. Scientists didn't pretend that "all the difference humans and apes comes down to a single gene", they stated that they discovered a new brain gene that is unique to humans .and they are hopeful to find more of the same to help explain what makes us who we are.

    They don''t even say that this gene was the "first" and sprang all the others. All they are saying is that it played a significant role in human evolution, and that it appeared from junk DNA after humans evolved from apes.

    Being unique to humans, and being the one and only single difference between humans and apes, are two different things. One is a scientific statement and the other is typical media sensationalist drivel.

  13. I'm not so sure ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... its even one gene.

    I'll give it some more thought after the NFL games are over today.

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  14. Re:What about the "ape family"? by physicsphairy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Clearly, the gene in question is the "read the article" gene, which allowed proto-humans to begin amassing knowledge instead of just mindlessly stating opinions.

    However, it sometimes is deactivated. Humans without this gene can continue to access many of their other advancements, but they do revert into being simple code monkeys and posting on slashdot.

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  15. Re:The missing link between humans and republicans by ebcdic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the point of view of the world outside America, Democrats are the missing link between humans and Republicans.