Signatures of environmental genetic adaptation pinpoint pathogens as the main selective pressure through human evolution.

ABSTRACT: Previous genome-wide scans of positive natural selection in humans have identified a number of non-neutrally evolving genes that play important roles in skin pigmentation, metabolism, or immune function. Recent studies have also shown that a genome-wide pattern of local adaptation can be detected by identifying correlations between patterns of allele frequencies and environmental variables. Despite these observations, the degree to which natural selection is primarily driven by adaptation to local environments, and the role of pathogens or other ecological factors as selective agents, is still under debate. To address this issue, we correlated the spatial allele frequency distribution of a large sample of SNPs from 55 distinct human populations to a set of environmental factors that descri

SUBMITTER: Fumagalli M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3207877 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature