Abstract

The extent of copy‐number variation (CNV) in the human genome has been appreciated only recently. Nevertheless, for almost four decades, gene duplication has been a prevailing hypothesis for evolutionary change. Recently, gene CNV spanning 60 million years of human and primate evolution has been determined1 enabling lineage‐specific gene CNV to be identified. Primate lineage‐specific gene CNV studies reveal that almost one third of all human genes exhibit a copy‐number change in one or more primate species. Intriguingly, human lineage‐specific gene amplification can be correlated to the emergence of human‐specific traits such as cognition and endurance running. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. BioEssays 29:1182–1184, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.