THBS4 (Thrombospondin 4)

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True Likely Speculative

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Human Uniqueness Compared to "Great Apes":

Likely Difference

MOCA Domain:

Genetics

MOCA Topic Authors:

Majesta O'Bleness

James Sikela

Thrombospondin 4 (THBS4) is an extracellular-matrix glycoprotein that mediates cell adhesion, proliferation, and motility. In brain, THBS4 has been implicated in neurite growth and can elicit synaps formation. THBS4 shows significantly higher expression levels in the human adult cortex than in other primates and this change has been hypothesized to have played a role in humans have increased synaptic density and increased rates of neurite growth. THBS4 also has been shown to accumulate in amyloid plaques and has been suggested to increase human susceptibility to developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Timing

Timing of appearance of the difference in the Hominin Lineage as a defined date or a lineage separation event. The point in time associated with lineage separation events may change in the future as the scientific community agrees upon better time estimates. Lineage separation events are defined in 2017 as:

the Last Common Ancestor (LCA) of humans and old world monkeys was 25,000 - 30,000 thousand (25 - 30 million) years ago
the Last Common Ancestor (LCA) of humans and chimpanzees was 6,000 - 8,000 thousand (6 - 8 million) years ago
the emergence of the genus Homo was 2,000 thousand (2 million) years ago
the Last Common Ancestor (LCA) of humans and neanderthals was 500 thousand years ago
the common ancestor of modern humans was 100 - 300 thousand years ago

Definite Appearance:

6,000 thousand years ago

Topic	Certainty
Alzheimer's Disease Pathology (Neurofibrillary Tangles)	Speculative
Cortical Synapse Density	Speculative

Topic	Certainty
Cortical Synapse Density

Gene Symbol	Type of Human-Specific Changes
THBS4	Expression Pattern Change

References

Increased cortical expression of two synaptogenic thrombospondins in human brain evolution., Cáceres, Mario, Suwyn Carolyn, Maddox Marcelia, Thomas James W., and Preuss Todd M. , Cereb Cortex, 2007 Oct, Volume 17, Issue 10, p.2312-21, (2007)
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