Notch homolog 2 N-terminal-like is a family of
proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
that in humans consists of 3 proteins (NOTCH2NLA, NOTCH2NLB, and NOTCH2NLC) and is encoded by NOTCH2NL
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...
. It appears to play a key role in the development of the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain.
NOTCH2NL increases the number of
cortical stem cells
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
, which while delaying the generation of neurons ultimately leads to a greater number of neurons and larger brains.
[ NOTCH2NL copy number loss and gain is associated with various neurological disorders, and they showed that loss of NOTCH2NL in cortical ]organoids
An organoid is a miniaturized and simplified version of an organ produced in vitro in three dimensions that shows realistic micro-anatomy. They are derived from one or a few cells from a tissue, embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem c ...
leads to the organoids being smaller, while resulting in premature differentiation of cortical stem cells into neurons.[ The role of NOTCH2NL in the development of the human brain together with the evolutionary history of NOTCH2NL genes, suggests that the emergence of NOTCH2NL genes may have contributed to the increase in size of the human neocortex which tripled over the last two million years.
]
References
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Population genetics
Phylogenetics