Thread by @cedricboeckx

Happy to share our group’s latest @biorxivpreprint
preprint, which builds on @buisan_raul's MA thesis, with crucial contributions from @juanandres_mp &
@AGMAndirko 🧵
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

We decided to take a closer look at the the four major regions of the human genome depleted of Neanderthal introgression presented in Chen et al (overlapping with those identified in previous work by @melanoidin)
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Looking at the brain expression of genes found in these regions, compared to other regions, we found the highest transcriptomic divergence in the cerebellum, the striatum & the prenatal thalamus (intriguing, given the expression profile of #FOXP2, found in one of these regions)

When focusing on signals of positive selection within these regions, the cerebellum and striatum continue to stand out, especially at early stages of development.

This dovetails nicely with some predictions by P. Gunz, S. Neubauer & @jjhublin on the role of cerebellum in driving the brain growth trajectory underlying our 'globular' cranium: advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/1/ea…

Our results also complement previous findings on how neanderthal introgression impacts on gene expression -- work by @rajivmccoy:
cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

and also work by @aktilot, P. Gunz, @ProfSimonFisher, who also highlight the striatum and cerebellum in their study on globularity:
cell.com/current-biolog…

as well as work by @FabriMafe and colleagues showing important differences at the level of the striatum when comparing neanderthal and modern human genomes:
pnas.org/content/117/26…

Special kudos to @buisan_raul for his hard work, and to @juanandres_mp & @AGMAndirko for helping him at every step along the way.