Common risk alleles for inflammatory diseases are targets of recent positive selection.

ABSTRACT: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified hundreds of loci harboring genetic variation influencing inflammatory-disease susceptibility in humans. It has been hypothesized that present day inflammatory diseases may have arisen, in part, due to pleiotropic effects of host resistance to pathogens over the course of human history, with significant selective pressures acting to increase host resistance to pathogens. The extent to which genetic factors underlying inflammatory-disease susceptibility has been influenced by selective processes can now be quantified more comprehensively than previously possible. To understand the evolutionary forces that have shaped inflammatory-disease susceptibility and to elucidate functional pathways affected by selection, we performed a systems-ba

SUBMITTER: Raj T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3617371 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature