chr8 · 8q24 · 275 nt · 2011

HAR80

What it is

Gene deserts look empty on a protein map and busy on an enhancer map. HAR80 is a reminder that human-specific change often hides in those empty-looking stretches.

Why it matters

Gene-desert enhancer acceleration.

Operator load

• 01 · ΔE

  Enhancer activity

  These stretches of DNA do not code for proteins. They act as volume knobs — turning nearby brain-development genes up or down at the right moment.

• 06 · P

  Population spread

  Once a change is useful, it spreads. Many HAR variants rose quickly in ancestral humans and are now nearly fixed across living populations.

Lindblad-Toh / HAR catalogs