Re: Australopithecine chromosomes

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In article <vpaquin-ya023680001301972145460001@nntp.hip.cam.org>,
Vincent Paquin <vpaquin@cam.org> wrote
>In article <32CF456C.48C1@po.cwru.edu>, "Todd A. Farmerie"
><taf2@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
>
>> Timo Niroma wrote:
>>
>> > One item that has caught little interest is when and why and with
>> > consequences two chromosomes have merged in Homo, so that we have 23
>> > pairs, when the chimpanzees have preserved the 24 chromosome pairs.
>>
>> Have two chromosomes merged in Homo, or has one split in Pan? What do
>> Gorilla have?
>
>According to Joy D. A. Delhanty ("Primate genetics and evolution", in The
>Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, 1992, p.280):
>"Fusion of two pairs of chromosomes accounts for the reduction of the
>chromosome number from 48 in the great apes to 46 in modern humans and most
>other chromosomal differences in the four species [humans, chimpanzees,
>gorillas and orangs] are inversions and variations in the amount and siting
>of repetitive DNA, which has no function in the coding of proteins."
>
Most of the genes from the extra chromosome in the great apes is found in
one block at the end of the chromosome 2 in humans.

See for a review :

Maddox J, The age of australopithecines, Nature 1994; 372: 31-32

Gautam Majumdar gautam@majumdar.demon.co.uk

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