Rewiring of human neurodevelopmental gene regulatory programs by Human Accelerated Regions (HARs). Rewiring of human neurodevelopmental gene regulatory programs by Human Accelerated Regions (HARs)

Human Accelerated Regions (HARs) are the fastest-evolving regions of the human genome and many are hypothesized to function as regulatory elements that drive human-specific gene regulatory programs. We interrogate the in vitro enhancer activity of >3,100 HARs in massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs), demonstrating that many HARs appear to act as neural enhancers and that sequence divergence at HARs has largely augmented their neuronal enhancer activity. Overall design: Massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) of HARs in human and mouse neural cell lines