Two genes were found in humans that do not resemble any of the known
Scientists have identified several "created from scratch" genes that evolved in humans after they "separated" from chimpanzees and became an independent species.Humans and chimpanzees separated from a common ancestor about 6 million years ago. According to a study published in the journal Cell Reports, completely new genes continued to develop in the human body after this stage. Some of them emerged from areas of the genome that had long been considered "junk."
Scientists studied the human genome looking for evidence of the "birth" of entirely new genes. In particular, they looked for so-called de novo genes. They spontaneously arise from fragments of DNA that encode not proteins, but molecules that turn genes on and off or perform other functions in the cell. It's as if they develop the code from scratch, rather than iterating protein-coding DNA that already existed in the cell.
In the new study, scientists found 155 human genes created from scratch that encode tiny proteins or microproteins, many of which contain less than 100 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. And two of them are particularly specific to humans. As scientists explain, they did not appear in any other animal genome studied. They appeared after humans separated from chimpanzees.