Tied humans' big brains to chimpanzees immunity?

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Scientists at Stanford argue that the same genes, the responsible for the immunity in chimpanzees also may be the reason people such large brains haben.Oben, a young chimpanzee in Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

It's a provocative - even amazing - hypothesis: could the same set of genes that explains why chimpanzees against some diseases are safe even explain why people have large brains?

This is what researchers at Stanford University are proposed.

The genes, the taxes concerned a type of white blood cells known as natural killer cells and NK cells.

"Can a huge difference whether you make sick or ill," says Peter Parham, Professor of cell biology at Stanford has the genes University.Parham studied, taxes, NK cells.And it is not a simple picture - there are a lot of genes involved.

People are not the only primates with NK Zellen.Schimpansen you have gut.Aber Parham recognized, some important differences between the ways NK cells in chimpanzees it must and human behavior.

"There are a number of relatively large infections, which infect people but not infect chimpanzees", he says."HIV is one, seems to have malaria to others."

Not only natural killer cells play an important role in preventing disease, blood flow between a mother and your developing fetus play a role in controlling. While increasingly important through a pregnancy blood flow;

"As the baby grows, is his demand for blood," says Parham.

This is crucial to keep that big brain of our growing in the womb.

Trade a big brain for immunity?

But it a compromise his scheint.Die type of NK cells, which are good for getting much blood to the developing fetus in the journal PLoS genetics, not so good for the handling of infection and umgekehrt.Wie reported Parham most in people looked closely at the kinds of NK cells, and compared them with the most common chimpanzees NK cells.

"[T] he system chimpanzees seems much more to deal with infections, be optimized" says Parham.

The human system seems on the other hand, for getting much blood to the developing fetus so our big brains how you can grow allegedly to optimized may be something to do be scanned.the, why we us for smarter than chimpanzees look at.

Mary Carrington, a senior researcher at the National Cancer Institute, studies the genes that control, NK Zellen.Sie says it's not so surprising that chimpanzees need a powerful immune system to fight diseases, as people do.

"" People all that time for a very long time, protection, cleaning was building have cooking of food and other things like that ", says Carrington.""And has reduced our exposure to infection pathogens."

But Carrington thinks Parham's proposal, that it is a compromise between a strong immune system and a large brain is a bit far hergeholt.Sie says it is based on data from chimpanzees the "we necessarily a really good handle does not have to."

But, says "It's certainly provocative."

Science

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