Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (3) 2012

Annotation:  Vegetation and Climate Changes in the Bolshoe Inyaptukskoe Lake Basin (North Baikal Plateau) in the Levantine Perspectives on the Middle to Upper Paleolithic “Transition” The Importance of Changes to microRNA in the Evolution of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova Upper Paleolithic Portable Art in Light of Ethnographic Studies Statistical Analysis of Spatial Distribution of Ceramics from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Sites i Ornaments Made from Animal Teeth in Human Burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 and their Relevance to Ethni The Bronze Age Rock Art of Malye Arbaty A 2367-year Tree-Ring Chronology for the Altai–Sayan Region (Mongun-Taiga Mountain Massif) Cultural Contact and Cultural Transfer in Medieval Western Eurasia Camisoles in the Traditional Male Costume of the Bukharan Jews (Part of the History of Clothes Cut f Western Siberian Folk Art: Northern Russian and Ural Traditions in Distaff Decoration Ethnic and Cultural Aspects of Nanai Healing Ritual Sculptures Ethnic and Cultural Identity of the Belorussian Migrants in Western Siberia Prehistoric and Recent Populations of Chukotka: A Paleophenetic Analysis Armenia in the Eurasian Ethnic Context of Late Classical Antiquity: Craniometric Evidence Dental Wear Patterns and Subsistence Activities in Early Nomadic Pastoralist Communities of the Cent   

The Importance of Changes to microRNA in the Evolution of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova

K.V. Gunbin, D.A. Afonnikov, N.A. Kolchanov, and A.P. Derevianko.

MicroRNA (hereafter, miRNA) genes have an important role in the transcriptional regulation of protein-coding genes, modulation of embryonic development, differentiation of embryonic stem cells, tissue formation and other processes. In this paper, we present an integrated study of the fastest evolving miRNAs in Homo neanderthalensis and Homo denisova, whose genomes have recently been sequenced. It has been demonstrated by the analysis of the functions of genes targeted by these miRNAs and changes in the secondary structures of their precursors that mutations in miRNA genes may have played a major role in the evolution of H. neanderthalensis and H. denisova, especially in the development and function of their brains.

Keywords: Homo neanderthalensis, Homo denisova, miRNA, molecular evolution.