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MBE Advance Access originally published online on August 21, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(11):2247-2250; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn184
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Letters

Positive Selection in ASPM Is Correlated with Cerebral Cortex Evolution across Primates but Not with Whole-Brain Size

Farhan Ali*,{dagger} and Rudolf Meier{dagger}

* Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore
{dagger} Department of Biological Sciences and University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore

E-mail: dbsmr{at}nus.edu.sg.

Accepted for publication July 24, 2008.

The rapid increase of brain size is a key event in human evolution. Abnormal spindle-like microcephaly associated (ASPM) is discussed as a major candidate gene for explaining the exceptionally large brain in humans but ASPM’s role remains controversial. Here we use codon-specific models and a comparative approach to test this candidate gene that was initially identified in Homo–chimp comparisons. We demonstrate that accelerated evolution of ASPM ({omega} = 4.7) at 16 amino acid sites occurred in 9 primate lineages with major changes in relative cerebral cortex size. However, ASPM’s evolution is not correlated with major changes in relative whole-brain or cerebellum sizes. Our results suggest that a single candidate gene such as ASPM can influence a specific component of the brain across large clades through changes in a few amino acid sites. We furthermore illustrate the power of using continuous phenotypic variability across primates to rigorously test candidate genes that have been implicated in the evolution of key human traits.

Key Words: ASPM • cerebral cortex evolution • positive selection • primates • PAML • maximum likelihood

Anne Stone, Associate Editor


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