{"id":214340,"date":"2025-05-20T09:17:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/human-specific-dna-enhancer-linked-to-brain-development-and-neuron-proliferation"},"modified":"2025-05-20T09:17:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:17:50","slug":"human-specific-dna-enhancer-linked-to-brain-development-and-neuron-proliferation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/human-specific-dna-enhancer-linked-to-brain-development-and-neuron-proliferation","title":{"rendered":"Human-specific DNA enhancer linked to brain development and neuron proliferation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/human-specific-dna-enhancer-linked-to-brain-development-and-neuron-proliferation.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Duke University Medical Center-led research has identified a human-specific DNA enhancer that regulates neural progenitor proliferation and cortical size. Small genetic changes in HARE5 amplify a key developmental pathway, resulting in increased cortical size and neuron number in experimental models. Findings have implications for understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders.<\/p>\n<p>Humans possess a significantly larger and more complex cerebral cortex compared to other species, contributing to advanced cognitive functions. Comparative genomics research has identified Human Accelerated Regions (HARs), segments of non-coding DNA with human-specific genetic changes. Many HARs are located near genes associated with <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/brain+development\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">brain development<\/a> and neural differentiation.<\/p>\n<p>Because thousands of HARs have been identified and linked to brain-related genes, the next critical step is to investigate how these <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/regulatory+elements\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">regulatory elements<\/a> actively shape human brain features.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Duke University Medical Center-led research has identified a human-specific DNA enhancer that regulates neural progenitor proliferation and cortical size. Small genetic changes in HARE5 amplify a key developmental pathway, resulting in increased cortical size and neuron number in experimental models. Findings have implications for understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders. Humans possess a significantly [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}