Human lineage mutations regulate RNA-protein binding of conserved genes NTRK2 and ITPR1 involved in human evolution

Background The role of human lineage mutations(HLMs)in human evolution through post-transcriptional modification is unclear.Aims To investigate the contribution of HLMs to human evolution through post-transcriptional modification.Methods We applied a deep learning model Seqweaver to predict how HLMs impact RNA-binding protein affinity.Results We found that only 0.27%of HLMs had significant impacts on RNA-binding proteins at the threshold of the top 1%of human common variations.These HLMs enriched in a set of conserved genes highly expressed in adult excitatory neurons and prenatal Purkinje neurons,and were involved in synapse organisation and the GTPase pathway.These genes also carried excess damaging coding mutations that caused neurodevelopmental disorders,ataxia and schizophrenia.Among these genes,NTRK2 and ITPR1 had the most aggregated evidence of functional importance,suggesting their essential roles in cognition and bipedalism.Conclusions Our findings suggest that a small subset of human-specific mutations have contributed to human speciation through impacts on post-transcriptional modification of critical brain-related genes.

The Basic Principles of Kin Sociality and Eusociality: Human Evolution

The paper posits that kin sociality and eusociality are derived from the handicap-care principles based on the need-based care to the handicappers from the caregivers for the self-interest of the caregivers. In this paper, handicap is defined as the difficulty to survive and reproduce independently. Kin sociality is derived from the childhood handicap-care principle where the children are the handicapped children who receive the care from the kin caregivers in the inclusive kin group to survive. The caregiver gives care for its self-interest to reproduce its gene. The individual’s gene of kin sociality contains the handicapped childhood and the caregiving adulthood. Eusociality is derived from the adulthood handicap-care principle where responsible adults are the handicapped adults who give care and receive care at the same time in the interdependent eusocial group to survive and reproduce its gene. Queen bees reproduce, but must receive care from worker bees that work but must rely on queen bees to reproduce. A caregiver gives care for its self-interest to survive and reproduce its gene. The individual’s gene of eusociality contains the handicapped childhood-adulthood and the caregiving adulthood. The chronological sequence of the sociality evolution is individual sociality without handicap, kin sociality with handicapped childhood, and eusociality with handicapped adulthood. Eusociality in humans is derived from bipedalism and the mixed habitat. The chronological sequence of the eusocial human evolution is 1) the eusocial early hominins with bipedalism and the mixed habitat, 2) the eusocial early Homo species with bipedalism, the larger brain, and the open habitat, 3) the eusocial late Homo species with bipedalism, the largest brain, and the unstable habitat, and 4) extended eusocial Homo sapiens with bipedalism, the shrinking brain, omnipresent imagination, and the harsh habitat. The omnipresence of imagination in human culture converts eusociality into extended eusociality with both perception and omnipresent imagination.

The Evolution of Theory of Mind in the Human Evolution

Despite almost half a century of research for theory of mind, its evolutionary origin is largely unknown. This paper proposes that the evolutionary origin of theory of mind starts from the beginning of the human evolution to form hominins through bipedalism and the mixed habitat. The feet of the early hominins were still adapted for grasping trees rather than walking for long distances and running fast on the ground. The early hominins lived in the mixed habitat of grassy woodland with patches of denser forest, and freshwater springs. The difficulty of walking in the mixed habitat leads to division of labor for the home specialist group (small children, old people, and mothers with small children, and pregnant women) in the safe forest area and the exploration specialist group (young people without the care of small children) in the dangerous open area. The different tasks, attitudes, and mentalities in different specialist groups produce theory of mind as the ability to attribute different mental states to different specialist groups. (Uniformity of mind instead of theory of mind is for generalists without division of labor). The early Homo species with the open habitat developed theory of mind for hunter specialist group and gatherer specialist group. The middle Homo species with complex stone tools developed theory of mind for the cooperative specialist groups in the large production of complex stone tools. The late Homo species with complex social interaction developed theory of mind for mind reading to enhance cooperation and to detect cheaters in complex social interaction. For religion, the unusually harsh Upper Paleolithic Period developed theory of mind for imaginary specialists in terms of supernatural power, guidance, and comfort. Therefore, the three general types of theory of mind are for specialists in division of labor, mind reading in complex social interaction, and imaginary specialists in imaginary division of labor under harsh conditions. Self-awareness in the mirror self-recognition test is also explained.

Where Is Human Evolution Heading?(节选)

If you judge the progress of humanity by Homer Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Girls Gone Wild videos, you might conclude that our evolution has stalled-or even shifted into reverse. Not so, scientists say.……

A transgenic monkey model for the study of human brain evolution

Why humans have large brains with higher cognitive abilities is a question long asked by scientjsts.However,much remains unknown,especially the underlying genetic mechanisms.With the use of a transgenic mon key model,we showed that human-specific sequenee changes of a key brain development gene(Primary microcephaly 1,MCPH7)could result in detectable molecularand cognitive changes resembling human neoteny,a no table characteristic developed during human evolution.This study was published in National Science Review(Shi et al.,2019).

The Comprehensive Human Essence and the New Evolution of Human Beings

Human beings have no absolute,fixed essence. The essence of human beings is the combination of an innate substrate and acquired creation. As the degree of machine intelligence in the development of human society continues to increase,human beings are constantly changing and creating their own essence,and they are also constantly liberated from the bondage of a certain single old essence,creating and enriching the richer and more diverse aspects of its essence. The transformation of labor from its alienation to its return is also a transformation of labor from the centralized form to the non-centralized form of human essence according to Karl Marx. The new fusion of artificial intelligence and bioengineering will lead to a new tracks of evolution that"reshapes and regenerates"life itself. This new evolutionary path will fuse the two-track evolution,biological evolution and cultural evolution,which have been relatively isolated in the traditional sense. If human beings are able to work hard together to design and implement a new social system that adapts to the future intelligent development,then what the comprehensive development of intelligence bring human beings about would be not a disaster,but a bright future.

Quantitative distinction of the relative actions of climate change and human activities on vegetation evolution in the Yellow River Basin of China during 1981-2019

Under the combined influence of climate change and human activities,vegetation ecosystem has undergone profound changes.It can be seen that there are obvious differences in the evolution patterns and driving mechanisms of vegetation ecosystem in different historical periods.Therefore,it is urgent to identify and reveal the dominant factors and their contribution rates in the vegetation change cycle.Based on the data of climate elements(sunshine hours,precipitation and temperature),human activities(population intensity and GDP intensity)and other natural factors(altitude,slope and aspect),this study explored the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of vegetation NDVI in the Yellow River Basin of China from 1989 to 2019 through a residual method,a trend analysis,and a gravity center model,and quantitatively distinguished the relative actions of climate change and human activities on vegetation evolution based on Geodetector model.The results showed that the spatial distribution of vegetation NDVI in the Yellow River Basin showed a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest.During 1981-2019,the temporal variation of vegetation NDVI showed an overall increasing trend.The gravity centers of average vegetation NDVI during the study period was distributed in Zhenyuan County,Gansu Province,and the center moved northeastwards from 1981 to 2019.During 1981-2000 and 2001-2019,the proportion of vegetation restoration areas promoted by the combined action of climate change and human activities was the largest.During the study period(1981-2019),the dominant factors influencing vegetation NDVI shifted from natural factors to human activities.These results could provide decision support for the protection and restoration of vegetation ecosystem in the Yellow River Basin.

Earth energy evolution, human development and carbon neutral strategy

Energy is the basis of human development and the impetus of society progress. There are three sources of energy: energy of celestial body outside the Earth, the Earth energy and energy of interaction between the Earth and other celestial bodies. Meanwhile, there are three scales of co-evolution: the evolution of the Sun-Earth-Moon system on an ultra-long time scale has provided energy sources and extra-terrestrial environmental conditions for the formation of the Earth system;the evolution of the Earth system on a long time scale has provided the material preconditions such as energy resources and suitable sphere environment for life birth and the human development;on a short time scale, the development of human civilization makes the human circle break through the Earth system, expanding the extraterrestrial civilization. With the co-evolution, there are three processes in the carbon cycle: inorganic carbon cycle, short-term organic carbon cycle and long-term organic carbon cycle, which records human immoderate utilization of fossil energy and global sphere reforming activities, breaking the natural balance and closed-loop path of the carbon cycle of the Earth, causing the increase of greenhouse gases and global climate change, affecting human happiness and development. The energy transition is inevitable, and carbon neutrality must be realized. Building the green energy community is a fundamental measure to create the new energy system under carbon neutrality target. China is speeding up its energy revolution and developing a powerful energy nation. It is necessary to secure the cornerstone of the supply of fossil energy and forge a strong growing pole for green and sustainable development of new energy. China energy production and consumption structure will make a revolutionary transformation from the type of fossil energy domination to the type of new energy domination, depending on a high-level self-reliance of science and technology and a high-quality green energy system of cleaning, low-carbon, safety, efficiency and independence. Energy development has three major trends: low-carbon fossil energy, large-scale new energy and intelligent energy system, relying on the green innovation, contributing the green energy and constructing the green homeland.

Science Letters:Culture of Spirulina platensis in human urine for biomass production and O_2 evolution

Attempts were made to culture Spirulina platensis in human urine directly to achieve biomass production and O2 evolution, for potential application to nutrient regeneration and air revitalization in life support system. The culture results showed that Spirulinaplatensis grows successfully in diluted human urine, and yields maximal biomass at urine dilution ratios of 140-240. Accumulation of lipid and decreasing of protein occurred due to N deficiency. O2 release rate of Spirulina platensis in diluted human urine was higher than that in Zarrouk medium.

Initiatives to clarify mechanisms of hydrological evolution in human-influenced Yellow River Basin

Significant changes in water cycle elements/processes have created serious challenges to regional sustainability and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin in China.It is necessary to investigate the impacts of climate change and human activities on hydrological evolution and disaster risk from a holistic perspective of the basin.This study developed initiatives to clarify the mechanisms of hydrological evolution in the human-influenced Yellow River Basin.The proposed research method includes:(1)a tool to simulate multiple factors and a multi-scale water cycle using a grid-based spatiotemporal coupling approach,and(2)a new algorithm to separate the responses of the water cycle to climate change and human impacts,and de-couple the eco-environmental effects using artificial intelligence techniques.With this research framework,key breakthroughs are expected to be made in the understanding of the impacts of land cover change on the water cycle and blue/green water redirection.The outcomes of this research project are expected to provide theoretical support for ecological protection and water governance in the basin.

The Core Mechanism of Natural Selection: How the Natural Cycle of Potassium Resources Affects the Biological Evolution and the Change of Human Society

Darwin’s theory of evolution believes that biological evolution is a process of natural selection. This theory has been supported by much evidence, but the internal biological mechanism is not clear. Here, I elaborate on the cycle of potassium resources on the earth and the biological utilization and efficiency, which may be the core mechanism of natural selection and affect the evolution of organisms and the development of human society.

Human Resource Ecosystem and its evolutionary rules

The paper, based on the concept and the elements of human resource ecosystem (HR Ecosystem), studies the function and structure of HR Ecosystem, introduces the entropy theory to define the content of entropy of HR Ecosystem, constructs the corresponding distinctive model to distinguish the direction of the evolution of HR Ecosystem and the evolutionary entropy model, and applies the models to demonstrate the evolutionary rules of HR Ecosystem. The study shows that the entropy theory can be well applied to the analysis on HR Ecosystem and that it opens up a new field in the research of human resource management and provides a new effective technical method.

The Origin and Evolution of Mt.Kilimanjaro Glacier and Its Impact on Human and Science

The glacier of Mt.Kilimanjaro has been on retreat situation for over a century and no much attention has been paid on its persistence.Today glaciers cover a tiny fraction relative to their extent during 1880s when Kibo alone had 50 times more ice than today.This might be due to poor linkage of its significance to science and human environmental conservation.This notion has been proved negative by most researchers who have been conducting research on tropical

Directed Evolution of Human Cu,Zn-SOD Under Artificial Oxidant Pressures

Cu,Zn SOD is a highly conserved enzyme and the controversy about its evolutionary possibility in the near future has been lively. In order to further our understanding of the future fate of human Cu,Zn SOD, we adopted a strategy relating to the directed evolution to study how the mutants of human Cu,Zn SOD respond to different oxidative stress. After five rounds of screening, we found a mutant that can survive under harsh pressures and DNA sequencing proves that it shows a mutation responsible for the phenomenon. However, under natural pressure, our screening comes to nothing. Then we may draw the following conclusions: the evolution of biological macromolecules in some respect depends on their surroundings and if they are too familiar with a certain environment, they may embody evolutionary inertia.

Language Neuromechanics: The Human Biological-Language Evolution

The paper proposes that the understanding of human language evolution requires the comprehensive understanding of language in terms of language types, formations, and learnings and the comprehensive understanding of human biological evolution in terms of the emergences of various hominin species with various language capacities. This paper proposes language neuromechanics and the human biological-language evolution. Language is derived from bodily movement. Language neuro-mechanics combines neuroscience to study language brain and biomechanics to study language movement. Language neuromechanics consists of language type, language formation, and language learning. Language types for advanced animals include gestural language verse vocal language, instinctive language verse controllable language, and symbolic language verse iconic language. Language formation involves the developments of the different types of languages from different bodily movements phylogenetically and ontogenetically. Language learning involves the learning of controllable language to adapt to communicative environment through language brain regions and language genes. This paper proposes a gradual and step-by-step human language evolution from the language of great apes to the human language through the human biological evolution which chronologically and geographically consists of early hominins, early Homos, middle Homos, and late Homos with different language capacities. For hominins, vocal language and gestural language were evolved together. In conclusion, combining neuroscience and bio-mechanics, language neuromechanics provides the comprehensive understanding of language. The combination of language neuromechanics and the human biological-language evolution provides the clear evolutionary path from great apes’ articulate gestural language without articulate speech to human articulate gestural language and articulate speech.

Impacts of human activities on morphological evolution in the Modaomen Estuary, China

The morphology of the Modaomen Estuary(ME)has undergone drastic changes in recent decades,and quantifying the contribution of human activities and natural processes is crucial for estuary management.Using Landsat images,chart data,and hydrological and meteorological data,this study analyzed the evolution of the shoreline and subaqueous topography of the ME and attempted to quantify the extent of the contributions of human activities.The results show that local human activities dominated morphological evolution in some periods.From 1973 to 2003,the shoreline advanced rapidly seaward,resulting in approximately half of the water area being converted into land.Human activity is critical to this process,with the direct contribution of local land reclamation projects reaching more than 85%.After 2003,the shoreline remained relatively stable,probably due to a decrease in land reclamation projects.Regarding the evolution of subaqueous topography,the shoals in the estuary were heavily silted and gradually disappeared during 1983–2003,and the waterways narrowed and deepened.The average siltation rate decreased from 15.43 mm/a to-1.02 mm/a,indicating that the ME changed from sedimentation to slight erosion.By detecting variations of sediment load,we found that upstream human activities reduced river sediment,while downstream human activities significantly increased sediment input to the ME,leaving little change in the actual sediment input to the ME for a relatively long period.In addition,based on the empirical relationship between the sediment input and siltation rate,local human activities influenced the shift in the siltation state more than upstream and downstream human activities did.These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to local human activities to improve the estuarine management in the ME.

Variation and evolution of NP genes of human avian H_5N_1 virus strains

In order to reveal variation and revolution of NP genes of human avian H5 N1 influenza virus strains, the NP gene of a human avian H5 N1 influenza virus strain in Guangdong was sequenced and the global NP genes of strains were retrieved. The sequences were analyzed by DNAStar 5.0, and the evolutionary speed was studied with reference to the epidemiological data. It was found that NP genes of 45 strains during 1997-2006 were homologically classified into three groups： strains in 1997-1998, strains in 2004-2005 and strains from 2003 to 2006. There were 35 substitutions in NPs in all strains accounting for a ratio of 7.03% （35/498）. An additional glycoprotein domain （NGT430-432） was found in NP genes in the strains of 2003-2006, the mutation of N370S in GD-01-06 resulted in occurrence of one more glycoprotein domain （NES368-370）. In the synonymous variation, Ks values in NP were 2.03 × 10^-5-2.55 × 10^-5 Nt/d and K. values in NP were 1.58 × 10^-6-3.10 × 10^-6 Nt/d. There didn＇t exist obviously selective pressure. An additional glycoprotein domain in every strain of 2003-2006 and one more in strain GD-01-06 might change the antigenicity of human avian H5 N1 influenza virus. The variation on human avian H5 N1 influenza strains occurred frequently in the natural world, which would result in high probability of human-human transmission along with the natural evolution of the virus.

Sedimentary Records of Mangrove Evolution During the Past one Hundred Years Based on Stable Carbon Isotope and Pollen Evidences in Maowei, SW China

Mangroves accumulate sedimentary sequences, where cores can provide historical records of mangrove evolution with past climate change and human activity. The study traced the history of mangrove evolution during the past one hundred years in a mangrove swamp of Maowei Sea, SW China. The sedimentation rates(0.38-0.95 cm yr^(-1)) were calculated on the basis of ln(^(210)Pb_(xs)/Al) and mass depth in the core sediments. Chemical tracers, such as δ^(13)C_(org) and C:N values, were utilized to trace the contribution of mangrove-derived organic matter using a ternary mixing model. Because of potential diagenetic alteration and / or overlap in the isotopic signatures of different components, simultaneous use of mangrove pollen diagrams can help to supplement some of these limitations. Combined with mangrove pollen, mangrove evolution was reconstructed and could be divided into three stages: flourishment(1886-1905 AD), slight degradation(1905-1949 AD) and rapid degradation period(1949-2007 AD), which was consistent with previous reports. The reclamation of mangrove swamps to shrimp ponds was the major reason for rapid degradation of mangrove ecosystems in recent years, rather than climate change in the region.

Hydrochemical characteristics and evolution of groundwater in the dried-up river oasis of the Tarim Basin,Central Asia

Intense human activities in arid areas have great impacts on groundwater hydrochemical cycling by causing groundwater salinization.The spatiotemporal distributions of groundwater hydrochemistry are crucial for studying groundwater salt migration,and also vital to understand hydrological and hydrogeochemical processes of groundwater in arid inland oasis areas.However,due to constraints posed by the paucity of observation data and intense human activities,these processes are not well known in the dried-up river oases of arid areas.Here,we examined spatiotemporal variations and evolution of groundwater hydrochemistry using data from 199 water samples collected in the Wei-Ku Oasis,a typical arid inland oasis in Tarim Basin of Central Asia.As findings,groundwater hydrochemistry showed a spatiotemporal dynamic,while its spatial distribution was complex.TDS and δ18O of river water in the upstream increased from west to east,whereas ion concentrations of shallow groundwater increased from northwest to southeast.Higher TDS was detected in spring for shallow groundwater and in summer for middle groundwater.Pronounced spatiotemporal heterogeneity demonstrated the impacts of geogenic,climatic,and anthropogenic conditions.For that,hydrochemical evolution of phreatic groundwater was primarily controlled by rock dominance and evaporation-crystallization process.Agricultural irrigation and drainage,land cover change,and groundwater extraction reshaped the spatiotemporal patterns of groundwater hydrochemistry.Groundwater overexploitation altered the leaking direction between the aquifers,causing the interaction between saltwater and freshwater and the deterioration of groundwater environment.These findings could provide an insight into groundwater salt migration under human activities,and hence be significant in groundwater quality management in arid inland oasis areas.

Hydrochemical characteristics of surface water in Hengduan mountain region of Eastern Tibet and its response to human activities:A case study of Duoqu Basin,Jinsha River

The analysis of hydrochemical characteristics and influencing factors of surface river on plateau is helpful to study water hydrological cycle and environmental evolution,which can scientifically guide rational development and utilization of water resources and planning of ecological environment protection.With the expansion and diversification of human activities,the quality of surface rivers will be more directly affected.Therefore,it is of great significance to pay attention to the hydrochemical characteristics of plateau surface rivers and the influence of human activities on their circulation and evolution.In this study,surface water in the Duoqu basin of Jinsha River located in Hengduan mountain region of Eastern Tibet was selected as the representative case.Twenty-three groups of surface water samples were collected to analyze the hydrochemical characteristics and ion sources based on correlation analysis,piper trigram,gibbs model,hydrogen and oxygen isotopic techniques.The results suggest the following:(1)The pH showed slight alkalinity with the value ranged from 7.25 to 8.62.Ca^(2+),Mg^(2+)and HCO_(3)^(–)were the main cations and anions.HCO_(3)^(-)Ca and HCO_(3)^(-)Ca·Mg were the primary hydrochemical types for the surface water of Duoqu River.The correlation analysis showed that TDS had the most significant correlation with Ca^(2+),Mg^(2+)and HCO_(3)^(–).Analysis on hydrogen and oxygen isotopes indicated that the surface rivers were mainly recharged by atmospheric precipitation and glacial melt water in this study area.(2)The surface water had a certain reverse cation alternating adsorption,and surface water ions were mainly derived from rock weathering,mainly controlled by weathering and dissolution of carbonates,and secondly by silicates and sodium rocks.(3)The influence of human activities was weak,while the development of cinnabar minerals had a certain impact on the hydrochemistry characteristics,which was the main factor for causing the increase of SO_(4)^(2–).The densely populated county towns and temples with frequent incense burning activities may cause some anomalies of surface water quality.At present,the Duoqu River watershed had gone through a certain influence of mineral exploitation,so the hydrological cycle and river eco-environment at watershed scale will still bound to be change.The results could provide basic support for better understanding water balance evolution as well as the ecological protection of Duoqu River watershed.