Natural selection for the Duffy-null allele in the recently admixed people of Madagascar

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2014

Autores

Jason A Hodgson (Autor) Outra; Joseph K Pickrell (Autor) Outra; Laurel N Pearson (Autor) Outra; Ellen E Quillen (Autor) Outra; Antonio Prista (Autor) Outra; Jorge Rocha (Autor) FCUP; Himla Soodyall (Autor) Outra; Mark D Shriver (Autor) Outra; George H Perry (Autor) Outra

Revista

Título: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Vol. 281

Páginas: 20140930-20140930

ISSN: 0962-8452

Editora: The Royal Society

Indexação

ISI Web of Knowledge - 39 Citações

Scopus - 43 Citações

Classificação Científica

FOS: Ciências exactas e naturais > Ciências biológicas

Outras Informações

ID Authenticus: P-009-MN0

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.0930

Abstract (EN): While gene flow between distantly related populations is increasingly recognized as a potentially important source of adaptive genetic variation for humans, fully characterized examples are rare. In addition, the role that natural selection for resistance to vivax malaria may have played in the extreme distribution of the protective Duffy-null allele, which is nearly completely fixed in mainland sub-Saharan Africa and absent elsewhere, is controversial. We address both these issues by investigating the evolution of the Duffy-null allele in the Malagasy, a recently admixed population with major ancestry components from both East Asia and mainland sub-Saharan Africa. We used genome-wide genetic data and extensive computer simulations to show that the high frequency of the Duffy-null allele in Madagascar can only be explained in the absence of positive natural selection under extreme demographic scenarios involving high genetic drift. However, the observed genomic single nucleotide polymorphism diversity in the Malagasy is incompatible with such extreme demographic scenarios, indicating that positive selection for the Duffy-null allele best explains the high frequency of the allele in Madagascar. We estimate the selection coefficient to be 0.066. Because vivax malaria is endemic to Madagascar, this result supports the hypothesis that malaria resistance drove fixation of the Duffy-null allele in mainland sub-Saharan Africa.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 9