Siglec-16

Certainty Style Key

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True Likely Speculative

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Human Uniqueness Relative to "Great Apes":

Likely

MOCA Domain:

Genetics

MOCA Topic Authors:

Ajit Varki

Siglec-16 is a paired activating receptor with the inhibitory Siglec-11. The two genes are found adjacent to each other, and a portion of the SIGLEC11 gene was converted by SIGLEC16, only in the human lineage. While great apes all appear to have an intact SIGLEC16 gene, it is inactivated in the majority of humans. The relevance of this polymorphic pseudogenization to humans is unknown, but it is interesting that the molecule is found in the microglia of the brain, which are involved in defense against brain-invading bacteria, and are also prominent in apparently human-specific diseases such as Alzheimer's diesease and AIDS-associated dementia.

Types of Human-Specific Changes in SIGLEC11:

Pseudogenization (polymorphic)

Timing

Timing of Appearance of the Difference in the Hominin Lineage.

For this entry assume that

the common ancestor of humans and old world monkeys was 25000 thousand (25 million) years ago
the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was 6000 thousand (6 million) years ago
the emergence of the genus Homo was 2000 thousand (2 million) years ago
the common ancestor of modern humans was 100 thousand years ago

Definite Appearance:

100 Thousand Years

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