Study Shows That Humans Are Still Evolving

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the Biomedical Sciences Research Center "Alexander Fleming" (BSRC Flemming) in Greece have discovered 155 genes in our genome that developed from tiny, non-coding segments of DNA. Many seem to be important in our biology, demonstrating how completely new genes can quickly emerge to become necessary.

Gene duplication events, in which our genetic system accidentally creates copies of pre-existing genes that may eventually suit new tasks through time, are a common way for new genes to emerge. The 155 microgenes identified in this study, however, appear to have arisen spontaneously in DNA segments that did not previously carry the instructions required by human bodies to make molecules.

These DNA sequences are difficult to locate and examine, making them frequently ignored in research because the proteins these new genes are anticipated to encode would be exceedingly tiny.

To monitor the evolution of the genes across time, the team behind this new study built a genetic ancestor tree and compared the small sequences contained in our genomes to those in 99 other vertebrate species.

The novel "microgenes" discovered in this study include some that date back to the earliest mammal ancestors while others are more recent. According to the study's findings, two of the genes appear to have appeared since the separation between humans and chimpanzees.