Scientists from MIT and the University of Massachusetts Medical School recently published a report in the journal Genome Research entitled “Evolutionary dynamics and tissue specificity of human long noncoding RNAs in six mammals.”
The article compares human long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) with lincRNAs of several mammals—including chimps and rhesus monkeys.
According to experts, lincRNAs are critically important to cells’ existence and serve many different roles. Not only are lincRNAs found within cells’ nuclei and cytoplasm, but they also assist communication between cells.
“LincRNAs play diverse regulatory roles in human development and disease,” the authors of the Genome Research article wrote, “but little is known about their evolutionary history and constraint.”
According to evolutionary theory, the lincRNA patterns of humans and chimps should be similar, since—according to evolutionists—humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor. However, the journal article reports that a significant portion of human lincRNA is unique to humans—not found in chimps or monkeys.
“We find that at least 35% of human lincRNAs show orthologous transcripts across mammals, and 20% are not conserved beyond chimp and undetectable even in rhesus,” the scientists reported.
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