scholarly journals Articulatory capacity of Neanderthals, a very recent and human-like fossil hominin

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1585) ◽  
pp. 88-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Barney ◽  
Sandra Martelli ◽  
Antoine Serrurier ◽  
James Steele
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Selection Pressure ◽  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Positive Selection Pressure ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Evolution Of Speech ◽  
Fossil Hominin

Scientists seek to use fossil and archaeological evidence to constrain models of the coevolution of human language and tool use. We focus on Neanderthals, for whom indirect evidence from tool use and ancient DNA appears consistent with an adaptation to complex vocal-auditory communication. We summarize existing arguments that the articulatory apparatus for speech had not yet come under intense positive selection pressure in Neanderthals, and we outline some recent evidence and analyses that challenge such arguments. We then provide new anatomical results from our own attempt to reconstruct vocal tract (VT) morphology in Neanderthals, and document our simulations of the acoustic and articulatory potential of this reconstructed Neanderthal VT. Our purpose in this paper is not to polarize debate about whether or not Neanderthals were human-like in all relevant respects, but to contribute to the development of methods that can be used to make further incremental advances in our understanding of the evolution of speech based on fossil and archaeological evidence.

Tool and Symbol

Mind Shift ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
John Parrington
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
Language Capacity ◽  
Development Of Language

This chapter examines the emergence of tool use and human language in human brain evolution. Increasing use and design of tools made possible by the bipedalism of our proto-human ancestors was a key step in the development of language. Indeed, communal tool use ‘helped to bring the members of society together by increasing the cases of mutual support and joint activity’. During this process, ‘the reaction of labour and speech on the development of the brain and its attendant senses, of the increasing clarity of consciousness, power of abstraction and of conclusion, gave both labour and speech an ever renewed impulse to further development’. The chapter then considers the studies which assess the fundamental differences in terms of language capacity between humans and apes. While the behaviourist view that human language acquisition is simply an accumulation of conditioned reflexes now looks incorrect, recent studies have also challenged the view of a biological basis for a ‘universal grammar’ shared by all humans. Instead, increasing evidence points to both human biology and the process of growing up in a specific human society as being factors of equal importance in the formation of language.

scholarly journals Fossil hominin shoulders support an African ape-like last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (38) ◽  
pp. 11829-11834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan M. Young ◽  
Terence D. Capellini ◽  
Neil T. Roach ◽  
Zeresenay Alemseged
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Last Common Ancestor ◽  
Ancestral State ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Parsimonious Model ◽  
And Function ◽  
Fossil Hominin

Reconstructing the behavioral shifts that drove hominin evolution requires knowledge of the timing, magnitude, and direction of anatomical changes over the past ∼6–7 million years. These reconstructions depend on assumptions regarding the morphotype of the Homo–Pan last common ancestor (LCA). However, there is little consensus for the LCA, with proposed models ranging from African ape to orangutan or generalized Miocene ape-like. The ancestral state of the shoulder is of particular interest because it is functionally associated with important behavioral shifts in hominins, such as reduced arboreality, high-speed throwing, and tool use. However, previous morphometric analyses of both living and fossil taxa have yielded contradictory results. Here, we generated a 3D morphospace of ape and human scapular shape to plot evolutionary trajectories, predict ancestral morphologies, and directly test alternative evolutionary hypotheses using the hominin fossil evidence. We show that the most parsimonious model for the evolution of hominin shoulder shape starts with an African ape-like ancestral state. We propose that the shoulder evolved gradually along a single morphocline, achieving modern human-like configuration and function within the genus Homo. These data are consistent with a slow, progressive loss of arboreality and increased tool use throughout human evolution.

scholarly journals From action to language: comparative perspectives on primate tool use, gesture and the evolution of human language

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1585) ◽  
pp. 4-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Steele ◽  
Pier Francesco Ferrari ◽  
Leonardo Fogassi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Fossil Hominins

The papers in this Special Issue examine tool use and manual gestures in primates as a window on the evolution of the human capacity for language. Neurophysiological research has supported the hypothesis of a close association between some aspects of human action organization and of language representation, in both phonology and semantics. Tool use provides an excellent experimental context to investigate analogies between action organization and linguistic syntax. Contributors report and contextualize experimental evidence from monkeys, great apes, humans and fossil hominins, and consider the nature and the extent of overlaps between the neural representations of tool use, manual gestures and linguistic processes.

scholarly journals Associations between HLA Class I Alleles and Escape Mutations in the Hepatitis B Virus Core Gene in New Zealand-Resident Tongans

2009 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 621-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. H. Abbott ◽  
Peter Tsai ◽  
Euphemia Leung ◽  
Alex Trevarton ◽  
Malakai Ofanoa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Hepatitis B ◽  
Selection Pressure ◽  
Hla Class I ◽  
Core Gene ◽  
Class I ◽  
Positive Selection Pressure ◽  
Hla Class I Molecules ◽  
B Virus ◽  
Chronic Hbv

ABSTRACT The full repertoire of hepatitis B virus (HBV) peptides that bind to the common HLA class I molecules found in areas with a high prevalence of chronic HBV infection has not been determined. This information may be useful for designing immunotherapies for chronic hepatitis B. We identified amino acid residues under positive selection pressure in the HBV core gene by phylogenetic analysis of cloned DNA sequences obtained from HBV DNA extracted from the sera of Tongan subjects with inactive, HBeAg-negative chronic HBV infections. The repertoires of positively selected sites in groups of subjects who were homozygous for either HLA-B*4001 (n = 10) or HLA-B*5602 (n = 7) were compared. We identified 13 amino acid sites under positive selection pressure. A significant association between an HLA class I allele and the presence of nonsynonymous mutations was found at five of these sites. HLA-B*4001 was associated with mutations at E77 (P = 0.05) and E113 (P = 0.002), and HLA-B*5602 was associated with mutations at S21 (P = 0.02). In addition, amino acid mutations at V13 (P = 0.03) and E14 (P = 0.01) were more common in the seven subjects with an HLA-A*02 allele. In summary, we have developed an assay that can identify associations between HLA class I alleles and HBV core gene amino acids that mutate in response to selection pressure. This is consistent with published evidence that CD8+ T cells have a role in suppressing viral replication in inactive, HBeAg-negative chronic HBV infection. This assay may be useful for identifying the clinically significant HBV peptides that bind to common HLA class I molecules.

scholarly journals Cultural transmission of tool use by Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops sp.) provides access to a novel foraging niche

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1784) ◽  
pp. 20140374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Krützen ◽  
Sina Kreicker ◽  
Colin D. MacLeod ◽  
Jennifer Learmonth ◽  
Anna M. Kopps ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Bottlenose Dolphins ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Marine Sponges ◽  
Deep Channel ◽  
Foraging Niche ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

Culturally transmitted tool use has important ecological and evolutionary consequences and has been proposed as a significant driver of human evolution. Such evidence is still scarce in other animals. In cetaceans, tool use has been inferred using indirect evidence in one population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops sp.), where particular dolphins (‘spongers’) use marine sponges during foraging. To date, evidence of whether this foraging tactic actually provides access to novel food items is lacking. We used fatty acid (FA) signature analysis to identify dietary differences between spongers and non-spongers, analysing data from 11 spongers and 27 non-spongers from two different study sites. Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed significant differences in FA profiles between spongers and non-spongers between and within study sites. Moreover, FA profiles differed significantly between spongers and non-spongers foraging within the same deep channel habitat, whereas the profiles of non-spongers from deep channel and shallow habitats at this site could not be distinguished. Our results indicate that sponge use by bottlenose dolphins is linked to significant differences in diet. It appears that cultural transmission of tool use in dolphins, as in humans, allows the exploitation of an otherwise unused niche.

scholarly journals Diversity analysis of amp gene sequences in the ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma meliae’

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco D. Fernández ◽  
Luis R. Conci
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Positive Selection ◽  
Selection Pressure ◽  
Pathogenic Bacteria ◽  
Extracellular Domain ◽  
Gene Sequences ◽  
Positive Selection Pressure ◽  
Host Cytoplasm ◽  
A Cell ◽  
First Time

AbstractPhytoplasmas are plant pathogenic bacteria transmitted by insects. As endosymbiotic bacteria that lack a cell wall, their membrane proteins are in direct contact with host cytoplasm. In phytoplasmas the immunodominant membrane proteins (IDPs), are the most abundant proteins of the cell membrane. The antigenic membrane protein (Amp), one of the three types of IDPs, is characterized by a positive selection pressure acting in their extracellular domain. In South America, the ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma meliae’ has been associated to chinaberry yellows disease. In the present work, we describe for the first time the structure, phylogeny and selection pressure of amp gene in sixteen ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma meliae’ isolates. Our results indicate that amp gene sequences preserve the structure, large extracellular domain flanked by to hydrophobic domains in the N- (signal peptide) and C-termini (transmembrane), previously described in its orthologues and high divergence in the amino acids residues from extracellular domain. Moreover, a positive selection pressure was detected predominantly in this region confirming previous reports.

scholarly journals Global variation in the SARS-CoV-2 proteome reveals the mutational hotspots in the drug and vaccine candidates

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Ponoop Prasad Patro ◽  
Chakkarai Sathyaseelan ◽  
Patil Pranita Uttamrao ◽  
Thenmalarchelvi Rathinavelan
Keyword(s):  
Nucleocapsid Protein ◽  
Selection Pressure ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Respiratory Syndrome Virus ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Rna Dependent Rna Polymerase ◽  
Positive Selection Pressure ◽  
Vaccine Candidates ◽  
Mutational Hotspots ◽  
Two Phases

ABSTRACTTo accelerate the drug and vaccine development against the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 proteome has been performed in two phases by considering manually curated 31389 whole genome sequences from 84 countries. Among the 9 mutations that occur at a high significance (T85I-NPS2, L37F-NSP6, P323L-NSP12, D614G-spike, Q57H-ORF3a, G251V-ORF3a, L84S-ORF8, R203K-nucleocapsid and G204R-nucleocapsid), R203K-nucleocapsid and G204R-nucleocapsid are co-occurring (dependent) mutations and P323L-NSP12 and D614G-spike often appear simultaneously. Other notable variations that appear with a moderate to low significance are, M85-NSP1 deletion, D268-NSP2 deletion, 112 amino acids deletion in ORF8, a phenylalanine insertion amidst F34-F36 (NSP6) and several co-existing (dependent) substitution/deletion (I559V & P585S in NSP2, P504L & Y541C in NSP13, G82 & H83 deletions in NSP1 and K141, S142 & F143 deletions in NSP2) mutations. P323L-NSP12, D614G-spike, L37F-NSP6, L84S-ORF8 and the sequences deficient of the high significant mutations have led to 4 major SARS-CoV-2 clades. The top 5 countries bearing all the high significant and majority of the moderate significant mutations are: USA, England, Wales, Australia and Scotland. Further, the majority of the significant mutations have evolved in the first phase and have already transmitted around the globe indicating the positive selection pressure. Among the 26 SARS-CoV-2 proteins, nucleocapsid protein, ORF3a, ORF8, RNA dependent RNA polymerase and spike exhibit a higher heterogeneity compared with the rest of the proteins. However, NSP9, NSP10, NSP8, the envelope protein and NSP4 are highly resistant to mutations and can be exploited for drug/vaccine development.

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