Researchers from the University of Leeds have defined one of the mechanisms governing how our physical features and behavioural traits have evolved over centuries.
A.R. | 15 june 2009
Darwin proposed that such traits are passed from a parent to their offspring, with natural selection favouring those that give the greatest advantage for survival, but did not have a scientific explanation for this process.
The Leeds team have reported that a protein known as REST plays a central role in switching specific genes on and off, thereby determining how specific traits develop in offsprings. This protein controls the process by which proteins are made, following the instructions encoded in genes. It also reveals that while REST regulates a core set of genes in all vertebrates, it has also evolved to work with a greater number of genes specific to mammals, in particular in the brain.
In collaboration with scientists in Singapore, the Leeds team examined the repertoire of genes that REST regulates, in particular those which are expressed in the central nervous system. The team compared 16 whole genome sequences in fish, primates and humans to see where and how REST binds to them.
