与人类语言进化相关的基因帮助蝙蝠回声定位。这是华东师范大学李钢博士和英国伦敦大学Stephen Rossiter博士等人合作研究的成果，日前，美国《科学》（Science）杂志专栏文章评述了这一成果。
美国PLoSONE《公共科学图书馆综合》杂志9月19日刊登了以华东师大生命科学学院李钢博士为第一作者，英国伦敦大学Stephen Rossiter博士与华东师大生命科学学院张树义教授为共同通讯作者的研究论文“Foxp2基因在回声定位蝙蝠中加速进化”。
一项研究证实，为了寻找猎物及躲避障碍物，不同种类的蝙蝠都会发出高频尖叫声，无一例外，它们都携带有一种高度变异的FOXP2基因。这种基因在蝙蝠体内的遗传变化促进了其在功能上的进化。
李钢与Stephen Rossiter和张树义等对13只蝙蝠（它们分属6类蝙蝠）所携带的FOXP2基因进行了测序，同时在其他23种哺乳动物及2种鸟类和1种爬行动物体内寻找这种基因。结果发现，蝙蝠FOXP2基因序列所产生的突变是其他动物的2倍。某些蝙蝠具有与导致人类语言障碍的变异类似的遗传突变。这些发现表明，FOXP2基因在蝙蝠的回声定位能力进化与多样化过程中扮演了一个至关重要的角色。（文汇报）
原始出处:
PLoS one
Received: March 18, 2007; Accepted: August 15, 2007; Published: September 19, 2007
Accelerated FoxP2 Evolution in Echolocating Bats
Gang Li1,2, Jinhong Wang1, Stephen J. Rossiter3*, Gareth Jones4, Shuyi Zhang1*
1 School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, 2 Institute of Zoology and Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 3 School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, United Kingdom, 4 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Abstract
FOXP2 is a transcription factor implicated in the development and neural control of orofacial coordination, particularly with respect to vocalisation. Observations that orthologues show almost no variation across vertebrates yet differ by two amino acids between humans and chimpanzees have led to speculation that recent evolutionary changes might relate to the emergence of language. Echolocating bats face especially challenging sensorimotor demands, using vocal signals for orientation and often for prey capture. To determine whether mutations in the FoxP2 gene could be associated with echolocation, we sequenced FoxP2 from echolocating and non-echolocating bats as well as a range of other mammal species. We found that contrary to previous reports, FoxP2 is not highly conserved across all nonhuman mammals but is extremely diverse in echolocating bats. We detected divergent selection (a change in selective pressure) at FoxP2 between bats with contrasting sonar systems, suggesting the intriguing possibility of a role for FoxP2 in the evolution and development of echolocation. We speculate that observed accelerated evolution of FoxP2 in bats supports a previously proposed function in sensorimotor coordination.
全文链接：http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000900
