Fig. 2: ZNF808 is a primate-specific gene targeting transposons of similar evolutionary age.

a, Reconstructed phylogeny of ZNF808 using a zinc finger signature approach. The three amino acids of each zinc finger directly contacting DNA were used to build a specific functional signature to track evolution of ZNF808, as previously described⁸. Zinc finger domains are color-coded according to the number of variants in each triplet compared with the human version. Notable events of loss or gain of zinc fingers are also represented. No appreciable homology with any zinc finger array was detected in New World monkeys or in any other mammals. Silhouettes of representative species are all from PhyloPic.org. b, ZNF808 binds primarily MER11 transposable elements. Analysis of ZNF808 ChIP–seq data⁸ reveals that it primarily intersects with transposable elements, although a few binding sites are found on gene promoters and other genomic regions. Further analysis of transposons shows that ZNF808 binds primarily elements of the MER11 family—MER11A, MER11B and MER11C. c, MER11 transposable elements are primate-specific. The origin of each individual MER11 element in the human genome was traced using a comparative multiple alignment of 241 species³⁵. The age of each element was determined as corresponding to the farthest phylogenetic branch where we could find a similar copy at a syntenic locus. Data points are plotted as the sum of elements found to have originated at each phylogenetic branch per subfamily—the x axis is scaled according to time in million years from estimates between the human genome and each phylogenetic branch common ancestor. A curve is interpolated between the data points to show the estimated rate of replication between phylogenetic branches. The scale is relative to each subfamily and is indicative of proportional changes between phylogenetic categories—the highest point for each subfamily is annotated with the number of new elements for scale.

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