Myosin gene mutation correlates with anatomical changes in the human lineage

Hansell H. Stedman (), Benjamin W. Kozyak, Anthony Nelson, Danielle M. Thesier, Leonard T. Su, David W. Low, Charles R. Bridges, Joseph B. Shrager, Nancy Minugh-Purvis and Marilyn A. Mitchell
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Hansell H. Stedman: University of Pennsylvania
Benjamin W. Kozyak: University of Pennsylvania
Anthony Nelson: University of Pennsylvania
Danielle M. Thesier: University of Pennsylvania
Leonard T. Su: University of Pennsylvania
David W. Low: University of Pennsylvania
Charles R. Bridges: University of Pennsylvania
Joseph B. Shrager: University of Pennsylvania
Nancy Minugh-Purvis: University of Pennsylvania
Marilyn A. Mitchell: University of Pennsylvania

Nature, 2004, vol. 428, issue 6981, 415-418

Abstract: Abstract Powerful masticatory muscles are found in most primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, and were part of a prominent adaptation of Australopithecus and Paranthropus, extinct genera of the family Hominidae1,2. In contrast, masticatory muscles are considerably smaller in both modern and fossil members of Homo. The evolving hominid masticatory apparatus—traceable to a Late Miocene, chimpanzee-like morphology3—shifted towards a pattern of gracilization nearly simultaneously with accelerated encephalization in early Homo4. Here, we show that the gene encoding the predominant myosin heavy chain (MYH) expressed in these muscles was inactivated by a frameshifting mutation after the lineages leading to humans and chimpanzees diverged. Loss of this protein isoform is associated with marked size reductions in individual muscle fibres and entire masticatory muscles. Using the coding sequence for the myosin rod domains as a molecular clock, we estimate that this mutation appeared approximately 2.4 million years ago, predating the appearance of modern human body size5 and emigration of Homo from Africa6. This represents the first proteomic distinction between humans and chimpanzees that can be correlated with a traceable anatomic imprint in the fossil record.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature02358

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