Adaptive evolution of UGT2B17 copy-number variation.

ABSTRACT: The human UGT2B17 gene varies in copy number from zero to two per individual and also differs in mean number between populations from Africa, Europe, and East Asia. We show that such a high degree of geographical variation is unusual and investigate its evolutionary history. This required first reinterpreting the reference sequence in this region of the genome, which is misassembled from the two different alleles separated by an artifactual gap. A corrected assembly identifies the polymorphism as a 117 kb deletion arising by nonallelic homologous recombination between approximately 4.9 kb segmental duplications and allows the deletion breakpoint to be identified. We resequenced approximately 12 kb of DNA spanning the breakpoint in 91 humans from three HapMap and one extended HapMap populat

SUBMITTER: Xue Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2556428 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature