Putting pleiotropy and selection into context defines a new paradigm for interpreting genetic data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Natural selection shapes many human genes, including some related to complex diseases. Understanding how selection affects genes, especially pleiotropic ones, may be important in evaluating disease associations and the role played by environmental variation. This may be of particular interest for genes with antagonistic roles that cause divergent patterns of selection. The lectin-like low-density lipoprotein 1 receptor, encoded by OLR1, is exemplary. It has antagonistic functions in the cardiovascular and immune systems because the same protein domain binds oxidized low-density lipoprotein and bacterial cell wall proteins, the former contributing to atherosclerosis and the latter presumably protecting from infection. We studied patterns of selection in this gene, in huma

SUBMITTER: Predazzi IM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3889706 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature