DNA variation in a 5-Mb region of the X chromosome and estimates of sex-specific/type-specific mutation rates

Understanding what determines the frequency and pattern of human germline mutations

Surprising findings about human germline mutation have come from applying new technologies to detect rare mutations in germline DNA, from analysing DNA sequence divergence between humans and closely related species, and from investigating human polymorphic variation. In this Review we discuss how these approaches affect our current understanding of the roles of sex, age, mutation hot spots, germline selection and genomic factors in determining human nucleotide substitution mutation patterns and frequencies. To enhance our understanding of mutation and disease, more extensive molecular data on the human germ line with regard to mutation origin, DNA repair, epigenetic status and the effect of newly arisen mutations on gamete development are needed.

Calculating expected DNA remnants from ancient founding events in human population genetics

Background

Recent advancements in sequencing and computational technologies have led to rapid generation and analysis of high quality genetic data. Such genetic data have achieved wide acceptance in studies of historic human population origins and admixture. However, in studies relating to small, recent admixture events, genetic factors such as historic population sizes, genetic drift, and mutation can have pronounced effects on data reliability and utility. To address these issues we conducted genetic simulations targeting influential genetic parameters in admixed populations.

Results

We performed a series of simulations, adjusting variable values to assess the affect of these genetic parameters on current human population studies and what these studies infer about past population structure. Final mean allele frequencies varied from 0.0005 to over 0.50, depending on the parameters.

Conclusion

The results of the simulations illustrate that, while genetic data may be sensitive and powerful in large genetic studies, caution must be used when applying genetic information to small, recent admixture events. For some parameter sets, genetic data will not be adequate to detect historic admixture. In such cases, studies should consider anthropologic, archeological, and linguistic data where possible.

Muller's ratchet and the degeneration of Y chromosomes: a simulation study

A typical pattern in sex chromosome evolution is that Y chromosomes are small and have lost many of their genes. One mechanism that might explain the degeneration of Y chromosomes is Muller's ratchet, the perpetual stochastic loss of linkage groups carrying the fewest number of deleterious mutations. This process has been investigated theoretically mainly for asexual, haploid populations. Here, I construct a model of a sexual population where deleterious mutations arise on both X and Y chromosomes. Simulation results of this model demonstrate that mutations on the X chromosome can considerably slow down the ratchet. On the other hand, a lower mutation rate in females than in males, background selection, and the emergence of dosage compensation are expected to accelerate the process.

Strong and weak male mutation bias at different sites in the primate genomes: insights from the human-chimpanzee comparison

Male mutation bias is a higher mutation rate in males than in females thought to result from the greater number of germ line cell divisions in males. If errors in DNA replication cause most mutations, then the magnitude of male mutation bias, measured as the male-to-female mutation rate ratio (alpha), should reflect the relative excess of male versus female germ line cell divisions. Evolutionary rates averaged among all sites in a sequence and compared between mammalian sex chromosomes were shown to be indeed higher in males than in females. However, it is presently unknown whether individual classes of substitutions exhibit such bias. To address this issue, we investigated male mutation bias separately at non-CpG and CpG sites using human-chimpanzee whole-genome alignments. We observed strong male mutation bias at non-CpG sites: alpha in the X-autosome comparison was approximately 6-7, which was similar to the male-to-female ratio in the number of germ line cell divisions. In contrast, mutations at CpG sites exhibited weak male mutation bias: alpha in the X-autosome comparison was only approximately 2-3. This is consistent with the methylation-induced and replication-independent mechanism of CpG transitions, which constitute the majority of mutations at CpG sites. Interestingly, our study also indicated weak male mutation bias for transversions at CpG sites, implying a spontaneous mechanism largely not associated with replication. Male mutation bias was equally strong at CpG and non-CpG sites located within unmethylated "CpG islands," suggesting the replication-dependent origin of these mutations. Thus, we found that the strength of male mutation bias is nonuniform in the primate genomes. Importantly, we discovered that male mutation bias depends on the proportion of CpG sites in the loci compared. This might explain the differences in the magnitude of primate male mutation bias observed among studies.

Cross-cultural estimation of the human generation interval for use in genetics-based population divergence studies

The length of the human generation interval is a key parameter when using genetics to date population divergence events. However, no consensus exists regarding the generation interval length, and a wide variety of interval lengths have been used in recent studies. This makes comparison between studies difficult, and questions the accuracy of divergence date estimations. Recent genealogy-based research suggests that the male generation interval is substantially longer than the female interval, and that both are greater than the values commonly used in genetics studies. This study evaluates each of these hypotheses in a broader cross-cultural context, using data from both nation states and recent hunter-gatherer societies. Both hypotheses are supported by this study; therefore, revised estimates of male, female, and overall human generation interval lengths are proposed. The nearly universal, cross-cultural nature of the evidence justifies using these proposed estimates in Y-chromosomal, mitochondrial, and autosomal DNA-based population divergence studies.

Gametic phase estimation over large genomic regions using an adaptive window approach

The authors present ELB, an easy to programme and computationally fast algorithm for inferring gametic phase in population samples of multilocus genotypes. Phase updates are made on the basis of a window of neighbouring loci, and the window size varies according to the local level of linkage disequilibrium. Thus, ELB is particularly well suited to problems involving many loci and/or relatively large genomic regions, including those with variable recombination rate. The authors have simulated population samples of single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes with varying levels of recombination and marker density, and find that ELB provides better local estimation of gametic phase than the PHASE or HTYPER programs, while its global accuracy is broadly similar. The relative improvement in local accuracy increases both with increasing recombination and with increasing marker density. Short tandem repeat (STR, or microsatellite) simulation studies demonstrate ELB's superiority over PHASE both globally and locally. Missing data are handled by ELB; simulations show that phase recovery is virtually unaffected by up to 2 per cent of missing data, but that phase estimation is noticeably impaired beyond this amount. The authors also applied ELB to datasets obtained from random pairings of 42 human X chromosomes typed at 97 diallelic markers in a 200 kb low-recombination region. Once again, they found ELB to have consistently better local accuracy than PHASE or HTYPER, while its global accuracy was close to the best.

DNA variation in a 13-Mb region including the F9 gene: inferring the genealogical history and causal role of a hemophilia B mutation (IVS 5+13 A-->G)

About 5.5% of all UK hemophilia B patients have the base substitution IVS 5+13 A-->G as the only change in their factor (F)IX gene (F9). This generates a novel donor splice site which fits the consensus better than the normal intron 5 donor splice. Use of the novel splice site should result in a missense mutation followed by the abnormal addition of four amino acids to the patients' FIX. In order to explain the prevalence of this mutation, its genealogical history is examined. Analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism in the 21 reference UK individuals (from different families) with the above mutation showed identical haplotypes in 19 while two differed from the rest and from each other. In order to investigate the history of the mutation and to verify that it had occurred independently more than once, the sequence variation in 1.5-kb segments scattered over a 13-Mb region including F9 was examined in 18 patients and 15 controls. This variation was then analyzed with a recently developed Bayesian approach that reconstructs the genealogy of the gene investigated while providing evidence of independent mutations that contribute disconnected branches to the genealogical tree. The method also provides minimum estimates of the age of the mutation inherited by the members of coherent trees. This revealed that 17 or 18 mutant genes descend from a founder who probably lived 450 years ago, while one patient carries an independent mutation. The independent recurrence of the IVS5+13 A-->G mutation strongly supports the conclusion that it is the cause of these patients' mild hemophilia.

CD40L association with protection from severe malaria

CD40 ligand (CD40L), a glycoprotein involved in B cell proliferation, antigen presenting cell activation, and Ig class switching, is important in the immune response to infection. Rare coding mutations in CD40L can lead to life-threatening immunodeficiency but the potential for common variants to alter disease susceptibility remains to be explored. To identify polymorphisms in CD40L, we sequenced 2.3 kb of the 5' flanking region and the first exon of the gene in DNA samples from 36 Gambian females and one chimpanzee. Diversity was lower than the average reported for other areas of the X chromosome, and only two polymorphisms were identified. The polymorphisms were genotyped in DNA samples from 957 Gambian individuals, cases and controls from a study of severe malaria. A significant reduction in risk for severe malaria (OR = 0.52, P = 0.002) was associated with males hemizygous for the CD40L-726C. Analysis by transmission disequilibrium test of 371 cases, for whom DNA from both parents was also available, confirmed the result was not due to stratification (P = 0.04). A similar but non-significant trend was found in females. This preliminary association of a common variant in CD40L with a malaria resistance phenotype encourages further genetic characterization of the role of CD40L in infectious disease.

Genomewide comparison of DNA sequences between humans and chimpanzees

A total of 8,859 DNA sequences encompassing approximately 1.9 million base pairs of the chimpanzee genome were sequenced and compared to corresponding human DNA sequences. Although the average sequence difference is low (1.24%), the extent of changes is markedly different among sites and types of substitutions. Whereas approximately 15% of all CpG sites have experienced changes between humans and chimpanzees, owing to a 23-fold excess of transitions and a 7-fold excess of transversions, substitutions at other sites vary in frequency, between 0.1% and 0.5%. If the nucleotide diversity in the common ancestral species of humans and chimpanzees is assumed to have been about fourfold higher than in contemporary humans, all possible comparisons between autosomes and X and Y chromosomes result in estimates of the ratio between male and female mutation rates of approximately 3. Thus, the relative time spent in the male and female germlines may be a major determinant of the overall accumulation of nucleotide substitutions. However, since the extent of divergence differs significantly among autosomes, additional unknown factors must also influence the accumulation of substitutions in the human genome.

Determinants of effective population size for loci with different modes of inheritance

Here we report an assessment of the determinants of effective population size (N(e)) in species with overlapping generations. Specifically, we used a stochastic demographic model to investigate the influence of different life-history variables on N(e)/N (where N = population census number) and the influence of sex differences in life-history variables on N(e) for loci with different modes of inheritance. We applied an individual-based modeling approach to two datasets: one from a natural population of savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in the Amboseli basin of southern Kenya and one from a human tribal population (the Gainj of Papua New Guinea). Simulation-based estimates of N(e)/N averaged 0.329 for the Amboseli baboon population (SD = 0.116, 95% CI = 0.172 - 0.537) and 0.786 for the Gainj (SD = 0.184, 95% CI = 0.498 - 1.115). Although variance in male fitness had a substantial impact on N(e)/N in each of the two primate populations, ratios of N(e) values for autosomal and sex-linked loci exhibited no significant departures from Poisson-expected values. In each case, similarities in sex-specific N(e) values were attributable to the unexpectedly high variance in female fitness. Variance in male fitness resulted primarily from age-dependent variance in reproductive success, whereas variance in female fitness resulted primarily from stochastic variance in survival during the reproductive phase.

Contrasting levels of nucleotide diversity on the avian Z and W sex chromosomes

Sex chromosomes may provide a context for studying the local effects of mutation rate on molecular evolution, since the two types of sex chromosomes are generally exposed to different mutational environments in male and female germ lines. Importantly, recent studies of some vertebrates have provided evidence for a higher mutation rate among males than among females. Thus, in birds, the Z chromosome, which spends two thirds of its time in the male germ line, is exposed to more mutations than the female-specific W chromosome. We show here that levels of nucleotide diversity are drastically higher on the avian Z chromosome than in paralogous sequences on the W chromosome. In fact, no intraspecific polymorphism whatsoever was seen in about 3.4 kb of CHD1W intron sequence from a total of >150 W chromosome copies of seven different bird species. In contrast, the amount of genetic variability in paralogous sequences on the Z chromosome was significant, with an average pairwise nucleotide diversity (d) of 0.0020 between CHD1Z introns and with 37 segregating sites in a total of 3.8 kb of Z sequence. The contrasting levels of genetic variability on the avian sex chromosomes are thus in a direction predicted from a male-biased mutation rate. However, although a low gene number, as well as some other factors, argues against background selection and/or selective sweeps shaping the genetic variability of the avian W chromosome, we cannot completely exclude selection as a contributor to the low levels of variation on the W chromosome.

Very high mutation rate in offspring of Chernobyl accident liquidators

Exposure to ionizing radiation has long been suspected to increase mutation load in humans. Nevertheless, such events as atomic bombing seem not to have yielded significant genetic defects. The Chernobyl accident created a different, long-term exposure to radiation. Clean-up teams (or 'liquidators') of the Chernobyl reactor are among those who received the highest doses, presumably in some combination of acute and chronic forms. In this study, children born to liquidator families (currently either in the Ukraine or Israel) conceived after (CA) parental exposure to radiation were screened for the appearance of new fragments using multi-site DNA fingerprinting. Their sibs conceived before (CB) exposure served as critical internal controls, in addition to external controls (non-exposed families). An unexpectedly high (sevenfold) increase in the number of new bands in CA individuals compared with the level seen in controls was recorded. A strong tendency for the number of new bands to decrease with elapsed time between exposure and offspring conception was established for the Ukrainian families. These results indicate that low doses of radiation can induce multiple changes in human germline DNA.

Genome sequences and evolutionary biology, a two-way interaction

Complete genome sequences are accumulating rapidly, culminating with the announcement of the human genome sequence in February 2001. In addition to cataloguing the diversity of genes and other sequences, genome sequences will provide the first detailed and complete data on gene families and genome organization, including data on evolutionary changes. Reciprocally, evolutionary biology will make important contributions to the efforts to understand functions of genes and other sequences in genomes. Large-scale, detailed and unbiased comparisons between species will illuminate the evolution of genes and genomes, and population genetics methods will enable detection of functionally important genes or sequences, including sequences that have been involved in adaptive changes.

Testing multiregionality of modern human origins

In order to examine the possibility of multiple founding populations of anatomically modern Homo sapiens, we collected DNA sequence data from 10 X-chromosomal regions, 5 autosomal regions, and 1 Y-chromosomal region, in addition to mitochondrial DNA. Except for five regions which are genealogically uninformative and two other regions for which chimpanzee orthologs are not available, the ancestral sequence and population for each of the remaining regions were successfully inferred. Of these 10 ancestral sequences, 9 occurred in Africa and only 1 occurred in Asia during the Pleistocene. Computer simulation was carried out to quantify the multiregional hypothesis based solely on the premise that there was more than one founding population in the Pleistocene. Allowing the breeding size to vary among the founding populations, the hypothesis may account for the observed African ancestry in 90% of the genomic regions. However, it is required that the founding population in Africa was much larger than that outside Africa. Likelihood estimates of the breeding sizes in the founding populations were more than 9,000 in Africa and less than 1,000 in outside of Africa, although these estimates can be much less biased at the 1% significance level. If the number of African ancestral sequences further increases as more data accumulate in other genomic regions, the conclusion of a single founding population of modern H. sapiens is inevitable.

The degeneration of Y chromosomes

Y chromosomes are genetically degenerate, having lost most of the active genes that were present in their ancestors. The causes of this degeneration have attracted much attention from evolutionary theorists. Four major theories are reviewed here: Muller's ratchet, background selection, the Hill Robertson effect with weak selection, and the 'hitchhiking' of deleterious alleles by favourable mutations. All of these involve a reduction in effective population size as a result of selective events occurring in a non-recombining genome, and the consequent weakening of the efficacy of selection. We review the consequences of these processes for patterns of molecular evolution and variation at loci on Y chromosomes, and discuss the results of empirical studies of these patterns for some evolving Y-chromosome and neo-Y-chromosome systems. These results suggest that the effective population sizes of evolving Y or neo-Y chromosomes are severely reduced, as expected if some or all of the hypothesized processes leading to degeneration are operative. It is, however, currently unclear which of the various processes is most important; some directions for future work to help to resolve this question are discussed.

Estimate of the mutation rate per nucleotide in humans

Many previous estimates of the mutation rate in humans have relied on screens of visible mutants. We investigated the rate and pattern of mutations at the nucleotide level by comparing pseudogenes in humans and chimpanzees to (i) provide an estimate of the average mutation rate per nucleotide, (ii) assess heterogeneity of mutation rate at different sites and for different types of mutations, (iii) test the hypothesis that the X chromosome has a lower mutation rate than autosomes, and (iv) estimate the deleterious mutation rate. Eighteen processed pseudogenes were sequenced, including 12 on autosomes and 6 on the X chromosome. The average mutation rate was estimated to be approximately 2.5 x 10(-8) mutations per nucleotide site or 175 mutations per diploid genome per generation. Rates of mutation for both transitions and transversions at CpG dinucleotides are one order of magnitude higher than mutation rates at other sites. Single nucleotide substitutions are 10 times more frequent than length mutations. Comparison of rates of evolution for X-linked and autosomal pseudogenes suggests that the male mutation rate is 4 times the female mutation rate, but provides no evidence for a reduction in mutation rate that is specific to the X chromosome. Using conservative calculations of the proportion of the genome subject to purifying selection, we estimate that the genomic deleterious mutation rate (U) is at least 3. This high rate is difficult to reconcile with multiplicative fitness effects of individual mutations and suggests that synergistic epistasis among harmful mutations may be common.

A short tandem repeat-based phylogeny for the human Y chromosome

Human Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) data provide a potential model system for the understanding of autosomal STR mutations in humans and other species. Yet, the reconstruction of STR evolution is rarely attempted, because of the absence of an appropriate methodology. We here develop and validate a phylogenetic-network approach. We have typed 256 Y chromosomes of indigenous descent from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and highland Papua New Guinea, for the STR loci DYS19, DXYS156Y, DYS389, DYS390, DYS392, and DYS393, as well as for five ancient biallelic mutation events: two poly (A) length variants associated with the YAP insertion, two independent SRY-1532 mutations, and the 92R7 mutation. We have used our previously published pedigree data from 11,000 paternity-tested autosomal STR-allele transfers to produce a two-class weighting system for the Y-STR loci that is based on locus lengths and motif lengths. Reduced-median-network analysis yields a phylogeny that is independently supported by the five biallelic mutations, with an error of 6%. We find the earliest branch in our African San (Bushmen) sample. Assuming an age of 20,000 years for the Native American DYS199 T mutation, we estimate a mutation rate of 2.6x10-4 mutations/20 years for slowly mutating Y STRs, approximately 10-fold slower than the published average pedigree rate.

Sex chromosomal transposable element accumulation and male-driven substitutional evolution in humans

We sequenced the genomic region containing the human Y-linked zinc finger gene (ZFY). Comparison of ZFY to the related region on the X chromosome (ZFX) and to autosomal sequences reveals a significant accumulation of transposable elements on the sex chromosomes. In addition, five times as many retroviruslike elements (RLEs) are present in the ZFY region as in the ZFX region. Thus, transposable elements accumulate more rapidly on the sex chromosomes, and the insertion of RLEs may occur more frequently in the male than in the female germ line. When the accumulation of substitutions in Alu elements was analyzed, it was found that the Alu elements at the Y-chromosomal locus diverged significantly faster than those at the X-chromosomal locus, whereas the divergence of autosomal Alu elements was intermediate. The male-to-female mutation rate ratio was estimated to be 2.5.

Low variability in a Y-linked plant gene and its implications for Y-chromosome evolution

Sex chromosomes have evolved independently in several different groups of organisms, but they share common features, including genetic degeneration of the Y chromosome. Suppression of recombination between ancestral proto-X and proto-Y chromosomes is thought to have led to their gradual divergence, and to degeneration of the Y chromosome, but the evolutionary forces responsible are unknown. In non-recombining Y chromosomes, deleterious mutations may be carried to fixation by linked advantageous mutations ("selective sweeps"). Occurrence of deleterious mutations may drive "Muller's ratchet" (stochastic loss of chromosomes with the fewest mutations). Selective elimination of deleterious mutations, causing "background selection" may accelerate stochastic fixation of mildly detrimental mutations. All these processes lower effective population sizes, and therefore reduce variability of genes in evolving Y chromosomes. We have studied DNA diversity and divergence in a recently described X- and Y-linked gene pair (SLX-1 and SLY-1) of the plant Silene latifolia to obtain evidence about the early stages of Y degeneration. Here we show that DNA polymorphism in SLY-1 is 20-fold lower than in SLX-1, but the pattern of polymorphism does not suggest a selective sweep.

Mutation rates in humans. II. Sporadic mutation-specific rates and rate of detrimental human mutations inferred from hemophilia B

We estimated the rates per base per generation of specific types of mutations, using our direct estimate of the overall mutation rate for hemophilia B and information on the mutations present in the United Kingdom's population as well as those reported year by year in the hemophilia B world database. These rates are as follows: transitions at CpG sites 9.7x10-8, other transitions 7.3x10-9, transversions at CpG sites 5.4x10-9, other transversions 6.9x10-9, and small deletions/insertions causing frameshifts 3.2x10-10. By taking into account the ratio of male to female mutation rates, the above figures were converted into rates appropriate for autosomal DNA-namely, 1.3x10-7, 9.9x10-9, 7.3x10-9, 9.4x10-9, 6.5x10-10, where the latter is the rate for all small deletion/insertion events. Mutation rates were also independently estimated from the sequence divergence observed in randomly chosen sequences from the human and chimpanzee X and Y chromosomes. These estimates were highly compatible with those obtained from hemophilia B and showed higher mutation rates in the male, but they showed no evidence for a significant excess of transitions at CpG sites in the spectrum of Y-sequence divergence relative to that of X-chromosome divergence. Our data suggest an overall mutation rate of 2.14x10-8 per base per generation, or 128 mutations per human zygote. Since the effective target for hemophilia B mutations is only 1.05% of the factor IX gene, the rate of detrimental mutations, per human zygote, suggested by the hemophilia data is approximately 1.3.