arising from N. A. An et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01925-6 (2023)

Studying the origins and evolution of genes that arose de novo (that is, from scratch) during evolution^1,2 is exciting but also challenging. An et al.³ report evolutionary and functional analyses of 74 purported hominoid de novo genes, highlighting one—SMIM45 (Ensembl⁴ identifier ENSG00000205704)—as human specific and suggesting that it contributed to the evolution of aspects of brain development that are unique to humans. However, our reanalyses of their loci—based on various genomic resources and extensive ribosome profiling (Ribo-seq) data—reveal that SMIM45 is in fact an ancient vertebrate gene and there are various issues with the remaining loci, most of which do not or may not correspond to hominoid-specific de novo genes either. Our work serves as a reminder that it is imperative in the de novo gene field to carefully and rigorously support the de novo gene status of candidate loci.

arising from N. A. An et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01925-6 (2023)

研究在进化^1,2 过程中从头（即从头开始）出现的基因的起源和进化是令人兴奋的，但也具有挑战性。等人³ 报告了对 74 个所谓的类人基因的进化和功能分析，强调了一个——SMIM45（Ensembl⁴ 标识符 ENSG00000205704）——是人类特有的，并表明它促进了人类特有的大脑发育方面的进化。然而，我们基于各种基因组资源和广泛的核糖体分析 （Ribo-seq） 数据对它们的基因座进行重新分析，表明 SMIM45 实际上是一种古老的脊椎动物基因，其余基因座存在各种问题，其中大多数不对应于或可能不对应于类人特异性的从头基因。我们的工作提醒我们，在从头基因领域，必须仔细和严格地支持候选基因座的从头基因状态。