LundChimpanzees carry a retrovirus family that humans never did.
LINC00662 stays active in human brain development, shaping how neurons mature and grow out.
Lund University researchers found in brain organoids that PTERV1 insertions on chromosome 19 silence the gene, they reported in Science Advances.
The authors say humans escaped infection either by living apart or through resistant germline cells.
How each outlet framed it
- 404 Media
- traces the PTERV1 retrovirus family present in chimps but absent in humans, tying it to divergent brain development
Sources: 404 Media