Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist explains the human gene variant that alters the voices of mice

Why is it that humans can talk but mice can’t?  

New research published in the journal Nature Communications found that it might be due to a specific gene. 

If you asked somebody what sound a mouse makes, most people would answer 'squeak' - but mice can also make chirping sounds in the ultrasonic range that humans can’t hear. 

The researchers took a variant of a gene called NOVA1, which is only found in humans, and gene-edited it into mice. 

The genetically modified mice started to squeak differently to the mice without the gene. Genetically modified baby mice that were separated from their mothers made very distinctly different sounds compared to non-modified baby mice from the same litter. Adult male mice also changed their songs during mating calls when they had the NOVA1 gene.  

These results suggests that the human version of NOVA1 is likely to influence vocal communication and could be a key player in the evolution of our speech. 

To confirm that this genetic variant was truly unique to modern humans, the researchers then did an analysis that checked genomes from extinct human species, the Neanderthals and Denisovans. 

They found that our ancient ancestors lacked this variant, however it was present in the genomes of modern humans from around the world. 

Humans are unique as a species when it comes to how we communicate, and knowing the gene involved in language could help us to understand how we began talking in the first place as well as potentially helping in treating speech disorders. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks. It'd be with.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Another very interesting science study for us this week. I'm
joined by doctor Micheldeck and single morning, Good morning. A
very interesting question. Why is it that humans can talk
but mice can't?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah, so if I said to you, what noise does
a mouse make? You would say.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Squeak as well, not hang on, what is it? It's
sort of a a high pitch squeally sort of noise.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, we all teach our kids that totally true.
In the range that humans can hear. Actually, mice also
communicate in the ultrasonic range, which we can't hear. So
if you do have a pet mouse at home, it
is basically chirping in the ultrasonic range all the time
and we can't hear.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
This is it talking to our plants, which are.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Also the whole conversation happening, And so this is really interesting.
So this study wants to know why is it that
humans can speak this beautiful language that we do with
our grammar and an annunciation, but most all other animals
can't do this. Why are other animals not talking to
each other? With a complex language, and so we know
that modern humans have a complex vocal court system, so

(01:12):
that's one of them. We know we have developed brains,
that's one of them. But this study, which is published
in the General Nature and it's actually open source for Nature,
which is unusual, actually thinks that they've found the gene.
There's a specific gene which is the reason why we
can communicate and other species come. So this gene is
called Nova one and in humans, our Nova one gene

(01:34):
is a specific variant that is very unusual and is
only found in modern humans. So they took that gene
and they basically gene edited into mice to see what
would happen. So they took these mice and they had
a litter of mice where they only gene edited half
of the litter. So basically there's a bunch of baby
mice in there and only half of them have this gene,
but half from the other litter don't. And then they

(01:56):
did there's really mean thing where they took mummy mouse
away from the baby mouse and they listened to what happened,
and obviously all the baby mice aging. But what they
found is the baby mice who were genetically modified who
were separated from the mum squealed totally differently in this
ultrasonic range. They had much more complex squeals. The range
was really different. So even with this gene, they could

(02:18):
see that the whole vocal ability had totally changed. Then
they did it to adult male mice, and their mating
core songs were beautiful and intricate and very very different
than standard mice. So it suggests that this human version
of NOVA one, this gene is likely to influence our
vocal communication. And so you go, okay, well, is that

(02:38):
the key player in the evolution of human speech? Because
if it is, that's a massive discovery. So they went, well,
let's figure this out. So we have some genetic material
from ancient human like species, so Neanderthals for example. So
they did genetic testing of the genome of Neanderthals and
found that they do not have this NOVA one And

(03:00):
we sort of think that Neantthals didn't communicate like modern
humans can, like mego sapiens can. And so by being
able to look at some of these ancient species that
humans have sort of evolved from and found that they
didn't have that gene. But this gene was present in
all one hundred percent of the genomes that they tested

(03:21):
from modern human sapiens.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
We think that we've actually found the reason why humans
talk and other species don't. No for one gene, who
knew Well, apparently we know.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Net well we do know know. So now my mind's
whirling going, well, what if we put.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
It to I'm the same, what if I want to
give indicate my dog? So yeah, I don't don't even
go there. There is okay, but I mean there is
a let's not talk about this, but there's a startup
in America that is starting to genetically modify pets. They're
about to say me glow in the dark rabbits, and
so if anybody was going to take that on, I
think these guys would take it on. We wouldn't do
this here in New Zealand. But yeah, I think this
discovery might lead to maybe you're talking cat and dog

(04:01):
in the future.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Oh gosh, wouldn't they answer a lot of questions?

Speaker 3 (04:05):
You know, they just say boy food, no, no, stop, stop,
let me go leave me alone.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, Pat, Pat, Pat, Michelle, thank you so much for.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
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