The genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes
B. Xia, W. Zhang, A. Wudzinska, E. Huang, R. Brosh, M. Pour, A. Miller, J. S. Dasen, M. T. Maurano, S. Y. Kim, J. D. Boeke, I. Yanai
This paper identifies an Alu element insertion in the TBXT gene as the genetic mechanism driving tail-loss evolution in hominoids, showing it causes alternative splicing and tail absence in mice.
bioRxiv · Sep 14, 2021Evolutionary Biology