Multiple copies of a mystery gene may make us human

September 5, 2006 | Source: [email protected]

A newly discovered mystery gene may have helped build the modern human brain.

Scientists don’t know what the gene does. But they do know that humans have more copies of it than chimpanzees, monkeys, rats and mice. And they know that the DUF1220 gene gene makes a protein that is found in the human brain.

Humans carry 212 copies of DUF1220, whereas chimps have 37 copies, and monkeys have only 30 copies, the researchers found.