HAR1 (human accelerated region 1)

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True Likely Speculative

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MOCA Domain:

Genetics

MOCA Topic Authors:

Majesta O'Bleness

James Sikela

Human Accelerated Regions 1 (HAR1) is part of the cis-antisense RNA gene pair HAR1F and HAR1R, which are expressed in neurons during human embryonic cortical development and adult brain. HAR1 is conserved in amniotes as far back as frogs, but 18 base pair substitutions have occurred specifically in the human lineage leading to a secondary structure change in HAR1F that is unique to humans. HAR1F co-expresses with reelin, a protein important to the proper layering of the human cortex, suggesting an important role for HAR1 in human brain development. In addition, HAR1 expression is repressed by REST, and it has been hypothesized that changes in HAR1 expression may contribute to Huntington’s disease phenotypes.

Genetics Topic Attributes

Gene symbols follow the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee standard.

Gene Symbol:

Har1A; HAR1B (Har1A; HAR1B)

Type of Human-Specific Changes:

Accelerated Evolution

Related MOCA Topics

References:

Johnson R, Richter N, Jauch R, Gaughwin PM, Zuccato C, Cattaneo E, Stanton LW (2010). The Human Accelerated Region 1 noncoding RNA is repressed by REST in Huntington's disease. Physiol Genomics 41 (3): 269. PMID 20179156 Beniaminov A, Westhof E, Krol A. (2008) Distinctive structures between chimpanzee and human in a brain noncoding RNA. RNA. 2008 Jul;14(7):1270-5. PMID: 18511501 Pollard KS, Salama SR, Lambert N, Lambot MA, Coppens S, Pedersen JS, Katzman S, King B, Onodera C, Siepel A, Kern AD, Dehay C, Igel H, Ares M Jr, Vanderhaeghen P, Haussler D (2006). An RNA gene expressed during cortical development evolved rapidly in humans. Nature 443 (7108): 167–172. PMID 16915236

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