2025·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
The activity and expression of adenylosuccinate lyase were reduced during modern human evolution, affecting brain and behavior
Ju XC, Lee SY, Ågren R, Machado LC, Xing J, Azama C, Roy MC, Endo T, Huttner W, Siepel A, Fukunaga I, Zeberg H, Pääbo S.
Read at the journaldoi:10.1073/pnas.2508540122
Abstract
An amino acid substitution and noncoding changes have reduced adenylosuccinate lyase activity in modern humans after the divergence from Neandertals and Denisovans. This resulted in increased concentrations of purine substrates of the enzyme, particularly in the brain. When introduced into mice, the amino acid substitution causes females to access water more readily than their wild-type littermates.
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