%0 Journal Article %J RNA %D 2008 %T Distinctive structures between chimpanzee and human in a brain noncoding RNA. %A Beniaminov, A. %A Westhof, E. %A Krol, A. %K Animals %K Base Sequence %K Brain %K Evolution, Molecular %K Genome, Human %K Humans %K Molecular Sequence Data %K Nucleic Acid Conformation %K Pan troglodytes %K RNA, Untranslated %X

Human accelerated region 1 (HAR1) is a short DNA region identified recently to have evolved the most rapidly among highly constrained regions since the divergence from our common ancestor with chimpanzee. It is transcribed as part of a noncoding RNA specifically expressed in the developing human neocortex. Employing a panoply of enzymatic and chemical probes, our analysis of HAR1 RNA proposed a secondary structure model differing from that published. Most surprisingly, we discovered that the substitutions between the chimpanzee and human sequences led the human HAR1 RNA to adopt a cloverleaf-like structure instead of an extended and unstable hairpin in the chimpanzee sequence. Thus, the rapid evolutionary changes resulted in a profound rearrangement of HAR1 RNA structure. Altogether, our results provide a structural context for elucidating HAR1 RNA function.

%B RNA %V 14 %P 1270-5 %8 2008 Jul %G eng %N 7 %1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18511501?dopt=Abstract

%R 10.1261/rna.1054608