12 March 2014
Genetic markers provide unprecedented primate link in human evolution
Genetics provide stunning new answers to the question of human evolution, according to Auckland cancer researcher, Dr Graeme Finlay.
Genetic markers that are used to follow the development of populations of cells have exactly the same character as those that track the development of species, says Dr Finlay who has just published a book on genetics and human evolution.
His book, Human Evolution: Genes, Genealogies and Phylogenies, was published by Cambridge University Press late last year.
Dr Finlay is senior lecturer in Scientific Pathology at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, in the University of Auckland.
Controversy over human evolution remains widespread, but the human genome project and genetic sequencing of many other species has provided myriad precise and unambiguous genetic markers that establish our evolutionary relationships with other mammals, says Dr Finlay.
This book identifies and explains these identifiable, rare and complex markers including endogenous retroviruses, genome-modifying transposable elements, gene-disabling mutations, segmental duplications and gene-enabling mutations.
These new genetic tools also provide fascinating insights into when and how many features of human biology arose: from aspects of placental structure, vitamin C dependence and trichromatic vision, to tendencies to gout, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The book brings together a decade's worth of research and ties it together to provide an overwhelming argument for the mammalian ancestry of the human species.
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Genetic markers provide primate link in human evolution