A group of scientists from around the world have been analysing the difference between the human genome and the chimpanzee genome. Less than 1 percent of the human genome differs from the chimpanzee genome and of these changes, the vast majority have little effect on the biology of humans. So the question was what genes actually make us human? One such gene is the HAR1 gene, which is important in the formation of a healthy cortex. The HAR1 gene shows little variation between chickens and chimpanzees but great variation between chimpanzees and humans, suggesting that this gene was changed significantly in humans.
Other genes that were found to be distinctive to humans were the FOXP2 gene, which enables speech, the AMY1 gene which helps in the digestion of starch, the ASPM gene which controls brain size, the LCT gene which allows tolerance of lactose into adulthood, and the HAR2 gene which plays a role in wrist and thumb development. It’s interesting to note that some of these genes are not protein coding genes.
