Exceptional evolutionary divergence of human muscle and brain metabolomes parallels human cognitive and physical uniqueness

PLoS Biol. 2014 May 27;12(5):e1001871. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001871. eCollection 2014 May.

Abstract

Metabolite concentrations reflect the physiological states of tissues and cells. However, the role of metabolic changes in species evolution is currently unknown. Here, we present a study of metabolome evolution conducted in three brain regions and two non-neural tissues from humans, chimpanzees, macaque monkeys, and mice based on over 10,000 hydrophilic compounds. While chimpanzee, macaque, and mouse metabolomes diverge following the genetic distances among species, we detect remarkable acceleration of metabolome evolution in human prefrontal cortex and skeletal muscle affecting neural and energy metabolism pathways. These metabolic changes could not be attributed to environmental conditions and were confirmed against the expression of their corresponding enzymes. We further conducted muscle strength tests in humans, chimpanzees, and macaques. The results suggest that, while humans are characterized by superior cognition, their muscular performance might be markedly inferior to that of chimpanzees and macaque monkeys.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Energy Metabolism
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Macaca / metabolism*
  • Macaca / psychology
  • Male
  • Metabolome*
  • Mice
  • Muscle Strength / physiology
  • Muscle, Skeletal / metabolism*
  • Pan troglodytes / metabolism*
  • Pan troglodytes / psychology
  • Prefrontal Cortex / metabolism*
  • Species Specificity

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31171232, 31250110071, Y23DC41301) and Ministry of Science and Technology of China (grant number 2012DFG31940), National Science Foundation (grant BCS-0824531) and James S. McDonnell Foundation (grants 22002078 and 220020293). PK was supported by the Foreign Expert 1000 Talents Plan program; KB was supported by a Chinese Academy of Sciences fellowship (2011Y1SB06). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.