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Subject: In Chimpanzee DNA, Signs of Y Chromosome's Evolution.
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2005 03:45:27 EDT


In Chimpanzee DNA, Signs of Y Chromosome's Evolution

By NICHOLAS WADE

Published: September 1, 2005 New York Times

Scientists have decoded the chimp genome and compared it with that of humans,
a major step toward defining what makes people human and developing a deep
insight into the evolution of human sexual behavior.

The comparison pinpoints the genetic differences that have arisen in the two
species since they split from a common ancestor some six million years ago.

The realization that chimpanzees hold a trove of information about human
evolution and nature comes at a time when they and other great apes are under
harsh pressures in their native habitat. Their populations are dwindling fast as
forests are cut down and people shoot them for meat. They may soon disappear
from the wild altogether, primatologists fear, except in the few sanctuaries
that have been established.

Chimpanzees and people possess almost identical sets of genes, so the genes
that have changed down the human lineage should hold the key to what makes
people human.

Biologists suspect that only a handful of genes are responsible for the major
changes that reshaped the apelike ancestor of both species into a human and
that these genes should be identifiable by having evolved at a particularly
rapid rate.

The comparison of the human and chimp genomes, reported in today's issue of
Nature, takes a first step in this direction but has not yet tracked down the
critical handful of genes responsible for human evolution.

<< Snip >>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/science/01chimp.html?th&emc=th

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