{"id":22395,"date":"2025-02-18T09:02:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T10:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22395"},"modified":"2025-02-18T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T10:28:09","slug":"the-gene-that-made-mice-squeak-strangely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22395","title":{"rendered":"The Gene That Made Mice Squeak Strangely"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new study suggests that the NOVA1 gene may have been a key player in the evolution of human language.<\/p>\n

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Scientists have long struggled<\/a> to understand how human language evolved. Words and sentences don\u2019t leave fossils behind for paleontologists to dig up.<\/p>\n

A genetic study<\/a> published on Tuesday offers an important new clue. Researchers found that, between 250,000 and 500,000 years ago, a gene known as NOVA1 underwent a profound evolutionary change in our ancestors. When the scientists put the human version of NOVA1 into mice, the animals made more complex sounds.<\/p>\n

Erich Jarvis, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University and a co-author of the new study, cautioned that NOVA1 alone did not suddenly switch on our ancestors\u2019 language abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s \u2018the\u2019 language gene,\u201d Dr. Jarvis said.<\/p>\n

Instead, over millions of years, language arose thanks to mutations in hundreds of genes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBut where does NOVA1 fit into that whole combination? It\u2019s one of the last steps,\u201d Dr. Jarvis said.<\/p>\n

NOVA1 drew scientific attention in 2012 when it appeared on a special list<\/a> of genes that produced proteins that were identical in most mammals, but produced a different form in humans. Out of more than 20,000 protein-coding genes, only 23 made the list. All were probably crucial to the evolution of our species.<\/p>\n

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A new study suggests that the NOVA1 gene may have been a key player in the evolution of human language.Scientists have long struggled to understand how human language evolved. Words and sentences don\u2019t leave fossils behind for paleontologists to dig up.A genetic study published on Tuesday offers an important new clue. Researchers found that, between 250,000 and 500,000 years ago, a gene known as NOVA1 underwent a profound evolutionary change in our ancestors. When the scientists put the human version of NOVA1 into mice, the animals made more complex sounds.Erich Jarvis, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University and a co-author of the new study, cautioned that NOVA1 alone did not suddenly switch on our ancestors\u2019 language abilities.\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s \u2018the\u2019 language gene,\u201d Dr. Jarvis said.Instead, over millions of years, language arose thanks to mutations in hundreds of genes.\u201cBut where does NOVA1 fit into that whole combination? It\u2019s one of the last steps,\u201d Dr. Jarvis said.NOVA1 drew scientific attention in 2012 when it appeared on a special list of genes that produced proteins that were identical in most mammals, but produced a different form in humans. Out of more than 20,000 protein-coding genes, only 23 made the list. All were probably crucial to the evolution of our species.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22397,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22398,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22395\/revisions\/22398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}