Natural selection exerted by historical coronavirus epidemic(s): comparative genetic analysis in China Kadoorie Biobank and UK Biobank.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pathogens have been one of the primary sources of natural selection affecting modern humans. The footprints of historical selection events - "selective sweeps"- can be detected in the genomes of present-day individuals. Previous analyses of 629 samples from the 1000 Genomes Project suggested that an ancient coronavirus epidemic ~ 20,000 years ago drove multiple selective sweeps in the ancestors of present-day East Asians, but not in other worldwide populations.

Results

Using a much larger genetic dataset of 76,719 unrelated individuals from each of the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) and UK Biobank (UKB) to identify regions of long-range linkage disequilibrium, we further investigated signatures of past selective sweeps and how they reflect previous viral epidemics.

SUBMITTER: Morris S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12542218 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature