D Thursday, November 12, 2009 METRO 17 15A www.ifco.ie FIND FREE SAMPLE SUFFERING INSTANT FROM SENSITIVITY? GET YOUR FREE SAMPLE THIS WEEK IN CAFE SOL * WITH EVERY COFFEE PURCHASED * WHILE STOCKS LAST Koalas may be extinct in just 30 years THE irresistibly cute koala could be wiped off the face of the Earth within 30 years. The destruction of their natural Australian habitat, climate change and disease has seen tens of thousands of the marsupials die, conservationists have revealed. In the last six years alone, numbers have dwindled from 100,000 to 43,000. Deborah Tabart, chief executive of the Australian Koala Foundation said: Koalas will be extinct within 30 years, unless the Australian government takes action to save them. Koalas: Dying out at alarming rate Chimps: Different gene Apes are just one gene off from talkingBy John von RaDowitzJUST one single gene that is dramati- cally different in chimpanzees and hu- mans may explain why apes are unable to talk. The FOXP2 gene underwent rapid changes around the time that language emerged in people. Scientists in the US have now learned that human and chimp versions of the gene not only look dif- ferent, but also function in completely different ways. FOXP2 acts as a master switch for other genes, turning them on or off. Scientists at the Univer- sity of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) scoured human DNA to see which areas are targeted by the gene. They then looked at what effect human and chimp forms of FOXP2 had on human cell lines. To their surprise, the two FOXP2 ver- sions triggered different patterns of ac- tivity in the human genes. We found that a significant number of the newly identified targets are expressed differently in human and chimpanzee brains, said study leader Dr Daniel Ge- schwind. This suggests that FOXP2 drives these genes to behave differently in the two species. Previous research has shown a close link between FOXP2 and the power of speech. The amino acid composition of the human version of the gene mutated and changed rapidly around the time language first developed. Our findings may shed light on why human brains are born with the circuitry for speech and language and chimpan- zee brains are not, said Dr Geschwind. The findings, reported yesterday in the journal Nature, may also help scientists understand how certain human brain dis- orders, such as autism and schizophrenia, can disrupt speech. Co-author Dr Genevieve Konopka, also from UCLA, said: Genetic changes between the human and chimp species hold the clues for how our brains devel- oped their capacity for language. By pinpointing the genes influenced by FOXP2, we have identified a new set of tools for studying how human speech could be regulated at the molecular lev- el Dr Konopka added. a model displays a creation by designer tatiana Rumyantseva during an avantgarde fashion contest at the University of technology and Design in St Petersburg, Russia Picture: Reuters doilie design index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html