Genes reveal links with gorillas

HUMANS and gorillas have a lot more in common than appearances suggest, a study has shown.

Across 15 per cent of their genetic code, or genome, gorillas are closer to humans than chimpanzees. In both, certain genes have evolved at the same rate. They include genes for hearing, throwing into doubt theories linking the development of hearing and human language. The findings emerge from the first completed genome sequence, or genetic “blueprint”, of the gorilla. Gorillas are the last of the living great apes to have their genetic codes mapped, allowing scientists to compare the genomes of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans.

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, studied more than 11,000 genes in the gorilla, human and chimpanzee looking for evolutionary differences. In all three, genes related to sensory perception, hearing and brain development showed accelerated evolution. But this was especially true for humans and gorillas.

Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, senior author of the research published in Nature, said: “Scientists had suggested the rapid evolution of human hearing genes was linked to the evolution of language. Our results cast doubt on this, as hearing genes have evolved in gorillas at a similar rate.”