FoxP2 Neural Network

from EU Research Spring 2017

BIOGO FOR PRODUCTION

New insights into the genetics of speech

Genetic inheritance is known to be an important factor in the development of speech and language disorders, yet much remains to be learned about the underlying mechanisms. Dr Sonja Vernes tells us about her research into genetic networks underlying speech and language disorders and how she is using a new animal model – bats – to gain insights into the molecular basis of speech and language

The discovery that a specific mutation in the FOXP2 gene can cause developmental verbal dyspraxia represented an important breakthrough in research into speech and language genetics. Heading an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Dr Sonja Vernes now aims to build on these earlier findings and gain new insights into the genetic and molecular basis of speech, language, and vocal communication. variation contributes to language impairment,” she says. “We recently started a project where we are taking patient genome sequences, and looking specifically for regulatory variants in what’s called the three-prime untranslated region (3’UTR) - a part of the genome important for controlling how much protein is produced in a cell.”

A number of other strands of research are also being pursued by Dr Vernes including developing a new animal model

for studying language-relevant traits. Most animals don’t learn their vocalisations, which is a core feature of how humans learn to speak. “For example, a dog barking or a mouse squeaking is innate, these vocalisations don’t involve learning” explains Dr Vernes. When a human baby cries it is an innate vocalisation, but they soon learn to modify the sounds that they produce - a process that has only a few parallels among animals. “Learning new vocalisations is a really difficult thing to do. We take it for granted, but actually very few other animals can do it,” points out Dr Vernes.

One species that can learn their vocalisations are bats – highly social animals that use a specific type of vocalisation to echolocate. In addition to these echolocation calls, some bats have been shown to learn vocalisations that they use in social interactions. Dr Vernes is now using bats as a model system in her research. “Some bats interact socially using learned vocalisations, which is similar to what we are doing when we speak. I think this is a really exciting model to start looking at the neurogenetics that contribute to this ability.” she outlines. These questions underlie a new project being pursued in the lab that brings together international researchers from across a number of disciplines with the shared goal of modelling the vocal learning ability of bats. Researchers aim to investigate how bats’ vocal learning skills are encoded at the behavioural, neurobiological and genetic levels. “Central to the strength and innovation of this project is that we are investigating this complex trait in a truly interdisciplinary fashion. Importantly this will be the first time this has been done in a mammalian model system and we think this will launch bats as a key model for speech and language research,” says Dr Vernes.

Some bats interact socially using learned vocalisations,

which is similar to what we are doing when we speak. I think this

is a really exciting model to start looking at the neurogenetics that contribute to this ability

Bats are revealing new molecular networks.

Genome sequencing and new animal models

With today’s highly efficient genome and exome sequencing technologies there are now many large cohorts in which researchers can investigate these questions in human populations. While many scientists are focused on the protein-coding region of the genome, Dr Vernes believes it’s also important to look at the non-coding region. “About 98 percent of the genome does not code for proteins. I’m interested in looking in these non-coding regions to try and understand to what extent non-coding