Around 25 million years ago, a stretch of DNA inserted itself into an ancestral ape’s genome, an event that might have taken our tails away.
in a way that seems to have sparked one of the defining differences between monkeys and apes: Monkeys have tails, apes don’t.
Transposons, including more than 1 million Alu elements, are found throughout our genome, says geneticist and systems biologist Bo Xia of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Researchers once thought of transposons as genetic garbage, but some have central roles in evolution. Without transposons, the placenta, immune system andTo find out how apes lost their tails, Xia, then at NYU Langone Health, Boeke and colleagues analyzed 140 genes involved in vertebrate tail development.
Mice genetically engineered to make an apelike version of the Tbxt protein had a variety of tail lengths. These X-ray images show that some had no tail or were shortened compared with normal mice . Other mice still had long or kinked tails .Mice genetically engineered to make an apelike version of the Tbxt protein had a variety of tail lengths. These X-ray images show that some had no tail or were shortened compared with normal mice . Other mice still had long or kinked tails .
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