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Climer S, Templeton AR, Zhang W. Human gephyrin is encompassed within giant functional noncoding yin-yang sequences. Nat Commun 2015; 6:6534. [PMID: 25813846 PMCID: PMC4380243 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2014] [Accepted: 02/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Gephyrin is a highly-conserved gene that is vital for the organization of proteins at inhibitory receptors, molybdenum cofactor biosynthesis, and other diverse functions. Its specific function is intricately regulated and its aberrant activities have been observed for a number of human diseases. Here we report a remarkable yin-yang haplotype pattern encompassing gephyrin. Yin-yang haplotypes arise when a stretch of DNA evolves to present two disparate forms that bear differing states for nucleotide variations along their lengths. The gephyrin yin-yang pair consists of 284 divergent nucleotide states and both variants vary drastically from their mutual ancestral haplotype, suggesting rapid evolution. Several independent lines of evidence indicate strong positive selection on the region and suggest these high-frequency haplotypes represent two distinct functional mechanisms. This discovery holds potential to deepen our understanding of variable human-specific regulation of gephyrin while providing clues for rapid evolutionary events and allelic migrations buried within human history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharlee Climer
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA
| | - Alan R Templeton
- 1] Department of Biology, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA [2] Department of Genetics, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA [3] Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel
| | - Weixiong Zhang
- 1] Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA [2] Department of Genetics, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA [3] Institute for Systems Biology, Jianghan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430056, China
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102
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Utsunomiya YT, Pérez O'Brien AM, Sonstegard TS, Sölkner J, Garcia JF. Genomic data as the "hitchhiker's guide" to cattle adaptation: tracking the milestones of past selection in the bovine genome. Front Genet 2015; 6:36. [PMID: 25713583 PMCID: PMC4322753 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2015.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2014] [Accepted: 01/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The bovine species have witnessed and played a major role in the drastic socio-economical changes that shaped our culture over the last 10,000 years. During this journey, cattle "hitchhiked" on human development and colonized the world, facing strong selective pressures such as dramatic environmental changes and disease challenge. Consequently, hundreds of specialized cattle breeds emerged and spread around the globe, making up a rich spectrum of genomic resources. Their DNA still carry the scars left from adapting to this wide range of conditions, and we are now empowered with data and analytical tools to track the milestones of past selection in their genomes. In this review paper, we provide a summary of the reconstructed demographic events that shaped cattle diversity, offer a critical synthesis of popular methodologies applied to the search for signatures of selection (SS) in genomic data, and give examples of recent SS studies in cattle. Then, we outline the potential and challenges of the application of SS analysis in cattle, and discuss the future directions in this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuri T Utsunomiya
- Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Reprodução Animal, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Ana M Pérez O'Brien
- Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna, Austria
| | - Tad S Sonstegard
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture Beltsville, MA, USA
| | - Johann Sölkner
- Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna, Austria
| | - José F Garcia
- Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Reprodução Animal, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil ; Laboratório de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular Animal, Departamento de Apoio, Saúde e Produção Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária de Araçatuba, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Araçatuba, São Paulo, Brazil
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103
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Liu X, Weidle K, Schröck K, Tönjes A, Schleinitz D, Breitfeld J, Stumvoll M, Böttcher Y, Schöneberg T, Kovacs P. Signatures of natural selection at the FTO (fat mass and obesity associated) locus in human populations. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0117093. [PMID: 25647475 PMCID: PMC4315420 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2014] [Accepted: 12/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background and aims Polymorphisms in the first intron of FTO have been robustly replicated for associations with obesity. In the Sorbs, a Slavic population resident in Germany, the strongest effect on body mass index (BMI) was found for a variant in the third intron of FTO (rs17818902). Since this may indicate population specific effects of FTO variants, we initiated studies testing FTO for signatures of selection in vertebrate species and human populations. Methods First, we analyzed the coding region of 35 vertebrate FTO orthologs with Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood (PAML, ω = dN/dS) to screen for signatures of selection among species. Second, we investigated human population (Europeans/CEU, Yoruba/YRI, Chinese/CHB, Japanese/JPT, Sorbs) SNP data for footprints of selection using DnaSP version 4.5 and the Haplotter/PhaseII. Finally, using ConSite we compared transcription factor (TF) binding sites at sequences harbouring FTO SNPs in intron three. Results PAML analyses revealed strong conservation in coding region of FTO (ω<1). Sliding-window results from population genetic analyses provided highly significant (p<0.001) signatures for balancing selection specifically in the third intron (e.g. Tajima’s D in Sorbs = 2.77). We observed several alterations in TF binding sites, e.g. TCF3 binding site introduced by the rs17818902 minor allele. Conclusion Population genetic analysis revealed signatures of balancing selection at the FTO locus with a prominent signal in intron three, a genomic region with strong association with BMI in the Sorbs. Our data support the hypothesis that genes associated with obesity may have been under evolutionary selective pressure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuanshi Liu
- IFB AdiposityDiseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kerstin Weidle
- Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kristin Schröck
- Institute of Biochemistry, Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anke Tönjes
- Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Jana Breitfeld
- IFB AdiposityDiseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Michael Stumvoll
- IFB AdiposityDiseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Yvonne Böttcher
- IFB AdiposityDiseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Torsten Schöneberg
- Institute of Biochemistry, Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Peter Kovacs
- IFB AdiposityDiseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- * E-mail:
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104
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Hellen EHB, Kern AD. The role of DNA insertions in phenotypic differentiation between humans and other primates. Genome Biol Evol 2015; 7:1168-78. [PMID: 25635043 PMCID: PMC4419785 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evv012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
What makes us human is one of the most interesting and enduring questions in evolutionary biology. To assist in answering this question, we have identified insertions in the human genome which cannot be found in five comparison primate species: Chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, gibbon, and macaque. A total of 21,269 nonpolymorphic human-specific insertions were identified, of which only 372 were found in exons. Any function conferred by the remaining 20,897 is likely to be regulatory. Many of these insertions are likely to have been fitness neutral; however, a small number has been identified in genes showing signs of positive selection. Insertions found within positively selected genes show associations to neural phenotypes, which were also enriched in the whole data set. Other phenotypes that are found to be enriched in the data set include dental and sensory perception-related phenotypes, features which are known to differ between humans and other apes. The analysis provides several likely candidates, either genes or regulatory regions, which may be involved in the processes that differentiate humans from other apes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrew D Kern
- Department of Genetics, Nelson Biolabs, Piscataway, NJ, USA
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105
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Parnell LD, Blokker BA, Dashti HS, Nesbeth PD, Cooper BE, Ma Y, Lee YC, Hou R, Lai CQ, Richardson K, Ordovás JM. CardioGxE, a catalog of gene-environment interactions for cardiometabolic traits. BioData Min 2014; 7:21. [PMID: 25368670 PMCID: PMC4217104 DOI: 10.1186/1756-0381-7-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2014] [Accepted: 10/18/2014] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Genetic understanding of complex traits has developed immensely over the past decade but remains hampered by incomplete descriptions of contribution to phenotypic variance. Gene-environment (GxE) interactions are one of these contributors and in the guise of diet and physical activity are important modulators of cardiometabolic phenotypes and ensuing diseases. Results We mined the scientific literature to collect GxE interactions from 386 publications for blood lipids, glycemic traits, obesity anthropometrics, vascular measures, inflammation and metabolic syndrome, and introduce CardioGxE, a gene-environment interaction resource. We then analyzed the genes and SNPs supporting cardiometabolic GxEs in order to demonstrate utility of GxE SNPs and to discern characteristics of these important genetic variants. We were able to draw many observations from our extensive analysis of GxEs. 1) The CardioGxE SNPs showed little overlap with variants identified by main effect GWAS, indicating the importance of environmental interactions with genetic factors on cardiometabolic traits. 2) These GxE SNPs were enriched in adaptation to climatic and geographical features, with implications on energy homeostasis and response to physical activity. 3) Comparison to gene networks responding to plasma cholesterol-lowering or regression of atherosclerotic plaques showed that GxE genes have a greater role in those responses, particularly through high-energy diets and fat intake, than do GWAS-identified genes for the same traits. Other aspects of the CardioGxE dataset were explored. Conclusions Overall, we demonstrate that SNPs supporting cardiometabolic GxE interactions often exhibit transcriptional effects or are under positive selection. Still, not all such SNPs can be assigned potential functional or regulatory roles often because data are lacking in specific cell types or from treatments that approximate the environmental factor of the GxE. With research on metabolic related complex disease risk embarking on genome-wide GxE interaction tests, CardioGxE will be a useful resource.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurence D Parnell
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Britt A Blokker
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Hassan S Dashti
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Paula-Dene Nesbeth
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Brittany Elle Cooper
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Yiyi Ma
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Yu-Chi Lee
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Ruixue Hou
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Chao-Qiang Lai
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - Kris Richardson
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
| | - José M Ordovás
- JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
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106
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Li MJ, Wang J. Current trend of annotating single nucleotide variation in humans--A case study on SNVrap. Methods 2014; 79-80:32-40. [PMID: 25308971 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2014.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2014] [Revised: 09/25/2014] [Accepted: 10/02/2014] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
As high throughput methods, such as whole genome genotyping arrays, whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), have detected huge amounts of genetic variants associated with human diseases, function annotation of these variants is an indispensable step in understanding disease etiology. Large-scale functional genomics projects, such as The ENCODE Project and Roadmap Epigenomics Project, provide genome-wide profiling of functional elements across different human cell types and tissues. With the urgent demands for identification of disease-causal variants, comprehensive and easy-to-use annotation tool is highly in demand. Here we review and discuss current progress and trend of the variant annotation field. Furthermore, we introduce a comprehensive web portal for annotating human genetic variants. We use gene-based features and the latest functional genomics datasets to annotate single nucleotide variation (SNVs) in human, at whole genome scale. We further apply several function prediction algorithms to annotate SNVs that might affect different biological processes, including transcriptional gene regulation, alternative splicing, post-transcriptional regulation, translation and post-translational modifications. The SNVrap web portal is freely available at http://jjwanglab.org/snvrap.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mulin Jun Li
- Centre for Genomic Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Department of Biochemistry, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, The University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
| | - Junwen Wang
- Centre for Genomic Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Department of Biochemistry, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, The University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China.
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107
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Cadzow M, Boocock J, Nguyen HT, Wilcox P, Merriman TR, Black MA. A bioinformatics workflow for detecting signatures of selection in genomic data. Front Genet 2014; 5:293. [PMID: 25206364 PMCID: PMC4144660 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2014] [Accepted: 08/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The detection of "signatures of selection" is now possible on a genome-wide scale in many plant and animal species, and can be performed in a population-specific manner due to the wealth of per-population genome-wide genotype data that is available. With genomic regions that exhibit evidence of having been under selection shown to also be enriched for genes associated with biologically important traits, detection of evidence of selective pressure is emerging as an additional approach for identifying novel gene-trait associations. While high-density genotype data is now relatively easy to obtain, for many researchers it is not immediately obvious how to go about identifying signatures of selection in these data sets. Here we describe a basic workflow, constructed from open source tools, for detecting and examining evidence of selection in genomic data. Code to install and implement the pipeline components, and instructions to run a basic analysis using the workflow described here, can be downloaded from our public GitHub repository: http://www.github.com/smilefreak/selectionTools/
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Affiliation(s)
- Murray Cadzow
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand ; Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics Rotorua, New Zealand
| | - James Boocock
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand ; Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics Rotorua, New Zealand
| | - Hoang T Nguyen
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand ; Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics Rotorua, New Zealand ; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Phillip Wilcox
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand ; Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics Rotorua, New Zealand ; New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd Rotorua, New Zealand
| | - Tony R Merriman
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand ; Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics Rotorua, New Zealand
| | - Michael A Black
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand ; Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics Rotorua, New Zealand
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108
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Advances in Human Biology: Combining Genetics and Molecular Biophysics to Pave the Way for Personalized Diagnostics and Medicine. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014. [DOI: 10.1155/2014/471836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Advances in several biology-oriented initiatives such as genome sequencing and structural genomics, along with the progress made through traditional biological and biochemical research, have opened up a unique opportunity to better understand the molecular effects of human diseases. Human DNA can vary significantly from person to person and determines an individual’s physical characteristics and their susceptibility to diseases. Armed with an individual’s DNA sequence, researchers and physicians can check for defects known to be associated with certain diseases by utilizing various databases. However, for unclassified DNA mutations or in order to reveal molecular mechanism behind the effects, the mutations have to be mapped onto the corresponding networks and macromolecular structures and then analyzed to reveal their effect on the wild type properties of biological processes involved. Predicting the effect of DNA mutations on individual’s health is typically referred to as personalized or companion diagnostics. Furthermore, once the molecular mechanism of the mutations is revealed, the patient should be given drugs which are the most appropriate for the individual genome, referred to as pharmacogenomics. Altogether, the shift in focus in medicine towards more genomic-oriented practices is the foundation of personalized medicine. The progress made in these rapidly developing fields is outlined.
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109
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Colonna V, Ayub Q, Chen Y, Pagani L, Luisi P, Pybus M, Garrison E, Xue Y, Tyler-Smith C, Abecasis GR, Auton A, Brooks LD, DePristo MA, Durbin RM, Handsaker RE, Kang HM, Marth GT, McVean GA. Human genomic regions with exceptionally high levels of population differentiation identified from 911 whole-genome sequences. Genome Biol 2014; 15:R88. [PMID: 24980144 PMCID: PMC4197830 DOI: 10.1186/gb-2014-15-6-r88] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2014] [Accepted: 06/30/2014] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Population differentiation has proved to be effective for identifying loci under geographically localized positive selection, and has the potential to identify loci subject to balancing selection. We have previously investigated the pattern of genetic differentiation among human populations at 36.8 million genomic variants to identify sites in the genome showing high frequency differences. Here, we extend this dataset to include additional variants, survey sites with low levels of differentiation, and evaluate the extent to which highly differentiated sites are likely to result from selective or other processes. RESULTS We demonstrate that while sites with low differentiation represent sampling effects rather than balancing selection, sites showing extremely high population differentiation are enriched for positive selection events and that one half may be the result of classic selective sweeps. Among these, we rediscover known examples, where we actually identify the established functional SNP, and discover novel examples including the genes ABCA12, CALD1 and ZNF804, which we speculate may be linked to adaptations in skin, calcium metabolism and defense, respectively. CONCLUSIONS We identify known and many novel candidate regions for geographically restricted positive selection, and suggest several directions for further research.
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110
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Barbash S, Shifman S, Soreq H. Global coevolution of human microRNAs and their target genes. Mol Biol Evol 2014; 31:1237-47. [PMID: 24600049 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msu090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have presumably contributed to the emergence of the novel expression patterns, higher brain functions, and skills underlying human evolution. However, it is incompletely understood how new miRNAs have evolved in the human lineage because their initial emergence predictably entailed deleterious consequences due to their powerful multitarget effects. Here, we report genetic variation and conservation parameters for miRNAs and their predicted targets in the genomes of 1,092 humans and 58 additional organisms. We show that miRNAs were evolutionarily more conserved than their predicted binding sites, which were inversely subject to the accumulation of single-nucleotide variations over short evolutionary timescales. Moreover, the predictably "younger" human-specific miRNAs presented lower genetic variation than other miRNAs; their targets displayed higher genetic variation compared with other miRNA targets in diverse human populations; and neuronal miRNAs showed yet lower levels of genetic variation and were found to target more protein-coding genes than nonneuronal miRNAs. Furthermore, enrichment analysis indicated that targets of human-specific miRNAs primarily perform neuronal functions. Specifically, the genomic regions harboring the vertebrate-conserved neuronal miRNA-132 presented considerably higher conservation scores than those of its target genes throughout evolution, whereas both the recently evolved human miRNA-941 and its acquired targets showed relatively low conservation. Our findings demonstrate inversely correlated genetic variation around miRNAs and their targets, consistent with theories of coevolution of these elements and the predicted role attributed to miRNAs in recent human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahar Barbash
- Department of Biological Chemistry, The Institute of Life Sciences and The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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111
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Engelken J, Carnero-Montoro E, Pybus M, Andrews GK, Lalueza-Fox C, Comas D, Sekler I, de la Rasilla M, Rosas A, Stoneking M, Valverde MA, Vicente R, Bosch E. Extreme population differences in the human zinc transporter ZIP4 (SLC39A4) are explained by positive selection in Sub-Saharan Africa. PLoS Genet 2014; 10:e1004128. [PMID: 24586184 PMCID: PMC3930504 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2013] [Accepted: 12/05/2013] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Extreme differences in allele frequency between West Africans and Eurasians were observed for a leucine-to-valine substitution (Leu372Val) in the human intestinal zinc uptake transporter, ZIP4, yet no further evidence was found for a selective sweep around the ZIP4 gene (SLC39A4). By interrogating allele frequencies in more than 100 diverse human populations and resequencing Neanderthal DNA, we confirmed the ancestral state of this locus and found a strong geographical gradient for the derived allele (Val372), with near fixation in West Africa. In extensive coalescent simulations, we show that the extreme differences in allele frequency, yet absence of a classical sweep signature, can be explained by the effect of a local recombination hotspot, together with directional selection favoring the Val372 allele in Sub-Saharan Africans. The possible functional effect of the Leu372Val substitution, together with two pathological mutations at the same codon (Leu372Pro and Leu372Arg) that cause acrodermatitis enteropathica (a disease phenotype characterized by extreme zinc deficiency), was investigated by transient overexpression of human ZIP4 protein in HeLa cells. Both acrodermatitis mutations cause absence of the ZIP4 transporter cell surface expression and nearly absent zinc uptake, while the Val372 variant displayed significantly reduced surface protein expression, reduced basal levels of intracellular zinc, and reduced zinc uptake in comparison with the Leu372 variant. We speculate that reduced zinc uptake by the ZIP4-derived Val372 isoform may act by starving certain pathogens of zinc, and hence may have been advantageous in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, these functional results may indicate differences in zinc homeostasis among modern human populations with possible relevance for disease risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes Engelken
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Elena Carnero-Montoro
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marc Pybus
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Glen K Andrews
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, United States of America
| | - Carles Lalueza-Fox
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - David Comas
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Israel Sekler
- Department of Physiology, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Marco de la Rasilla
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain
| | - Antonio Rosas
- Group of Paleoanthropology MNCN-CSIC, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural Sciences, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
| | - Mark Stoneking
- Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Miguel A Valverde
- Laboratory of Molecular Physiology and Channelopathies, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rubén Vicente
- Laboratory of Molecular Physiology and Channelopathies, Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elena Bosch
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
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