Evolution of genetic and genomic features unique to the human lineage

Given the unprecedented tools that are now available for rapidly comparing genomes, the identification and study of genetic and genomic changes that are unique to our species have accelerated, and we are entering a golden age of human evolutionary genomics. Here the authors provide an overview of these efforts, highlighting important recent discoveries, examples of the different types of human-specific genomic and genetic changes identified, and salient trends, such as the localization of evolutionary adaptive changes to complex loci that are highly enriched for disease associations. Finally, they discuss the remaining challenges, such as the incomplete nature of current genome sequence assemblies and difficulties in linking human-specific genomic changes to human-specific phenotypic traits.

Majesta O'Bleness, et al.
Nature Reviews Genetics 13, 853-866 (December 2012) |doi:10.1038/nrg3336