{"id":6994,"date":"2025-02-18T11:02:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-gene-that-made-mice-squeak-strangely\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T11:02:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:02:23","slug":"the-gene-that-made-mice-squeak-strangely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-gene-that-made-mice-squeak-strangely\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gene That Made Mice Squeak Strangely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Scientists have <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/jole\/article\/1\/1\/1\/2281881?login=false\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">long struggled<\/a> to understand how human language evolved. Words and sentences don\u2019t leave fossils behind for paleontologists to dig up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A genetic <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-025-56579-2\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> published on Tuesday offers an important new clue. Researchers found that, between 250,000 and 500,000 years ago, a gene known as NOVA1 underwent a profound evolutionary change in our ancestors. When the scientists put the human version of NOVA1 into mice, the animals made more complex sounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Erich Jarvis, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University and a co-author of the new study, cautioned that NOVA1 alone did not suddenly switch on our ancestors\u2019 language abilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s \u2018the\u2019 language gene,\u201d Dr. Jarvis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Instead, over millions of years, language arose thanks to mutations in hundreds of genes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBut where does NOVA1 fit into that whole combination? It\u2019s one of the last steps,\u201d Dr. Jarvis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">NOVA1 drew scientific attention in 2012 when it appeared on a special <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/full\/10.1126\/science.1224344\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">list<\/a> of genes that produced proteins that were identical in most mammals, but produced a different form in humans. Out of more than 20,000 protein-coding genes, only 23 made the list. All were probably crucial to the evolution of our species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That NOVA1 made the list surprised Dr. Robert Darnell, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University who had <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/8398153\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">discovered<\/a> the gene in 1993. He was startled because the gene appears to be essential to all mammals. A mouse engineered without NOVA1 will die during development. Nothing in Dr. Darnell\u2019s research had hinted that the gene had played a distinctive role in human evolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Darnell began collaborating with evolutionary biologists to find out more. One of them, Adam Siepel of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in New York, led an effort to reconstruct the gene\u2019s history. He looked at the gene\u2019s sequence in the DNA of extinct humans, as well as genetic information from more than 650,000 living people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Siepel found that NOVA1 underwent a dramatic change not long after our ancestors split from Neanderthals and Denisovans, providing an evolutionary advantage to early humans who inherited the change. Eventually, it swamped the original version of NOVA1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ever since, Dr. Siepel said, that version of the gene has remained overwhelmingly dominant in the human population. Mutations that reversed NOVA1 to its original form must have been harmful, because they are extremely rare. Of the 650,000 people registered in the database, only six carried the original version of the gene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The researchers do not know anything about who those six people are. Dr. Darnell is now searching for carriers of the original NOVA1, in the hopes of testing them for speech skills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the meantime, Dr. Darnell and his colleagues have engineered mice that carry the human version of NOVA1, instead of the one found in other mammals. To all outward appearances, the NOVA1 mice seemed ordinary. But they harbored some telling differences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The human version of NOVA1 oversaw the production of 200 proteins in mouse brains that the ordinary version of the gene did not. And many of those proteins played a role in how the animals produce sounds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cFor me, that was like, \u2018Bingo!\u2019\u201d Dr. Darnell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If NOVA1 had shaped the evolution of human language, Dr. Darnell reasoned, then the human version of it might change the way that the mice produce sounds. Dr. Jarvis, an expert on animal vocalization, helped Dr. Darnell eavesdrop on the animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mice typically produce pulses of ultrasonic squeaks that resemble syllables in human language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But mice carrying the human version of NOVA1 made peculiar squeaks, the scientists found. The difference was especially noticeable when males sang courtship songs to females. Their songs contained more complex sounds, and the mice switched between those sounds in more intricate patterns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The intriguing changes in NOVA1\u2019s evolution happened after our ancestors split from Neanderthals and Denisovans. But another language gene, known as <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0092867418308511?via=ihub\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">FOXP2<\/a>, underwent a burst of important changes before that split. And <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/fulltext\/S0092-8674(09)00378-X\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">studies<\/a> have shown that mice carrying human FOXP2 genes also make strange squeaks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some scientists speculated that the two genes both independently altered human brain regions that produce complex sounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe exciting thing about NOVA1 is that there is now another kid on the block,\u201d said Wolfgang Enard, a geneticist at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich who worked on the FOXP2 mice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Jarvis said that he thinks the common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans could talk, perhaps thanks to genes such as FOXP2. But mutations to other genes, including NOVA1, may have endowed modern humans alone with the ability to produce a wider range of complex sounds, expanding the power of language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To test that hypothesis, Dr. Jarvis hopes to engineer mice with mutations in NOVA1, FOXP2 and other genes that may have been important in the rise of language. Together, these mutations may let mice produce even more complex calls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/science\/language-genes.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have long struggled to understand how human language evolved. Words and sentences don\u2019t leave fossils behind for paleontologists to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[2649,267,1068,299,221,2645,2646,268,2648,2647,188],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-adam","tag-animal-behavior","tag-brain","tag-evolution-biology","tag-language-and-languages","tag-mice","tag-paabo","tag-research","tag-siepel","tag-svante","tag-your-feed-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Gene That Made Mice Squeak Strangely - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-gene-that-made-mice-squeak-strangely\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gene That Made Mice Squeak Strangely - World News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists have long struggled to understand how human language evolved. 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