Katherine Pollard: The Fastest Evolving Regions of the Human Genome

Identifying the specific mutations that make us humans is one of the greatest challenges of biology.

Join Gladstone Institutes' senior researcher Katherine Pollard in exploring the new techniques being used to discover the functions of the fastest evolving regions of the human genome and how individual DNA mutations altered these functions to make us human.

This Leakey Foundation Annual Speaker Series on Human Origins lecture took place at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on November 11, 2015.

[grsiva]

Fantastic presentation. very clear, enjoyed watching.

[georgimmitev]

Good presentation. Wish my professors were this good

[bjrockensock]

The speaker's explanation of differences among mammals at vid 16:00 is very clearly explained and helpful

[crowesarethebest]

Great presentation. Thank you for posting

[johnfraser]

Most excellent presentation - thank you so much ! 👍👍

[malinkata]

How could someone dislike this presentation?

[robertlichvar]

Excellent. Very informative and stated at a level one could follow. I enjoyed how she hit the high points. Well done.

[KenDBerryMD]

Wonderful lecture, very helpful for my research!

[DennisMathias]

Erie to see that tissue beating like a heart. That must have been amazing the first time it was observed.

[johnfox]

If this is not fascinating, nothing is!! Wonderful presentation by an excellent researcher!!

[GaryR]

I think she definitely went off-track when she speculated that humans may have developed speech as late as 5, 000 years ago. That would have been well within the historical record. Civilization and government were arrived at by 6, 000 years ago and, certainly, the beginnings of architecture and engineering, as well. So, speech would have been well-developed by then, of course. Given that art had its origins about 30, 000 years ago, it is most likely that speech dates from at least 30, 000 to 50, 000 years ago.

[LoriDeMarco]

I can’t believe the comments on her voice or appearance. Perhaps discuss the science or anything of importance instead.

[spiralsun]

Wow, one of my favorite videos I have ever seen. THIS. The important stuff: People don’t understand just exactly how important these things are.

Also, I am completely in love with this speaker. 🥰🤷‍♀️ So freaking clear, I want to be near her so bad I feel it in my heart 😳 Did NOT expect that watching this until I heard her beautiful mind working. More please! 😂👍🏻

[wiseguy]

Remarkable research and a fascinating lecture. Reading some of the comments begs the question "how much archaic human is still expressed in the homo sapien sapien genome".

[markdstump]

43:50
15 million mutations divided by 6 million years is not about 3 million mutations/year..it's 2.5/year, or about 3/year.

[Skiskiski]

Question: so what are the fastest evolving parts of the human genome?

[alanharrison]

Excellent presentation! Great insight into the way our evolution works.

[kforest]

8:38 “turns out to be about half and half”

That’s likely because the relationship between the two (mainly physical) are similar

[GJ-djjx]

I didn't know "most humans are lactose intolerant". I thought it's the other way around.

[kforest]

13:57 “mutations that led to fairer skin in high latitudes”

Yeah I recall hearing about higher latitudes a long time ago