A virus-fighting protein in humans and other primates triggers an explosion in genetic mutations that may have sped up the evolution of our species, according to a new study.
“In some sense, this is scary,” says Kelley Harris, a geneticist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who was not involved with the work. Random mutations are often harmful. But there could be a silver lining: These changes also “provide raw material for evolution to happen” and that may enable individuals besieged by viruses to come up with better antiviral defenses, she says. “The paper doesn’t prove that it’s beneficial for humans to mutate their own DNA when they are infected by viruses, but it’s an interesting possibility.”
All together, the researchers found about 37,000 mutations occurring in 10,000 clusters in the chimp and human genomes that they think were caused by these proteins, they report in Genome Research.
Cornell research uncovered a new mechanism for mutation in primates that is rare but rapid, site-specific and aggressive.
