The evolutionary history of genes involved in spoken and written language: beyond FOXP2

Humans possess a communication system based on spoken and written language. Other animals can learn vocalization by imitation, but this is not equivalent to human language. Many genes were described to be implicated in language impairment (LI) and developmental dyslexia (DD), but their evolutionary...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-02, Vol.6 (1), p.22157-22157, Article 22157
Main Authors: Mozzi, Alessandra, Forni, Diego, Clerici, Mario, Pozzoli, Uberto, Mascheretti, Sara, Guerini, Franca R., Riva, Stefania, Bresolin, Nereo, Cagliani, Rachele, Sironi, Manuela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/2474
631/181/735
Animals
Communications systems
Dyslexia
Evolution & development
Evolution, Molecular
Evolutionary genetics
Forkhead Transcription Factors - genetics
Foxp2 protein
Genes
Homo neanderthalensis
Homo sapiens denisova
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Language
Language Development Disorders - genetics
Language disorders
Mammals
Membrane Proteins - genetics
multidisciplinary
Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics
Neurodevelopmental disorders
Positive selection
Proteins
Reading
Receptors, Immunologic - genetics
Roundabout Proteins
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Selection, Genetic
Sequence Alignment
Vocalization behavior
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Summary:Humans possess a communication system based on spoken and written language. Other animals can learn vocalization by imitation, but this is not equivalent to human language. Many genes were described to be implicated in language impairment (LI) and developmental dyslexia (DD), but their evolutionary history has not been thoroughly analyzed. Herein we analyzed the evolution of ten genes involved in DD and LI. Results show that the evolutionary history of LI genes for mammals and aves was comparable in vocal-learner species and non-learners. For the human lineage, several sites showing evidence of positive selection were identified in KIAA0319 and were already present in Neanderthals and Denisovans, suggesting that any phenotypic change they entailed was shared with archaic hominins. Conversely, in FOXP2 , ROBO1 , ROBO2 , and CNTNAP2 non-coding changes rose to high frequency after the separation from archaic hominins. These variants are promising candidates for association studies in LI and DD.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep22157