New Genome Studies Reveal Divergences among Great Apes

With an entrepreneurial career spanning decades, Luis Miguel Chong Chong leads the Mexican company Disruptiva Works Technology- and innovation-focused, Luis Miguel Chong Chong leverages his healthcare and pharmaceutical industry experience in following advances in areas such as human genomics and health care.

As reported in Inverse, recent breakthroughs in the study of great ape genomes are providing new insights into the course of human evolution. Alongside gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees, humans are a type of ape that diverged from a common ancestor some six to eight million years ago.

The recently completed project involved assembling and sequencing an orangutan and chimpanzee genome employing high depth, real-time sequence data at the single molecule level. In total, more than half a million full-length genes were sequenced for each species.

Through high resolution comparative analysis, genetic variation that separates humans from the other great apes can be studied in depth. This allows scientists to understand the radical restructuring of genome regions that have influenced our unique human lineage. Of intense scientific interest is pinpointing those genetic mutation hotspots that alter how critical genes are expressed during brain development.