Overdominance in the human genome and olfactory receptor activity

被引：43

作者：

Alonso, Santos ^{[1
]}

Lopez, Saioa ^{[1
]}

Izagirre, Neskuts ^{[1
]}

de la Rua, Concepcion ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Basque Country, Fac Sci & Technol, Dept Genet Phys Anthropol & Anim Physiol, Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain

来源：

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION | 2008年 / 25卷 / 05期

关键词：

overdominance; heterozygote advantage; balancing selection; olfactory receptors; HapMap;

D O I：

10.1093/molbev/msn049

中图分类号：

Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];

学科分类号：

071010 ; 081704 ;

摘要：

We investigate the contribution of overdominance to the maintenance of polymorphism in the human genome during the recent evolution of our species. Using the HapMap genotypic information, we have detected that the Gene Ontology term "olfactory receptor activity" is a molecular function overrepresented in genes that have SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) showing higher than expected number of heterozygotes in the HapMap populations. Our results suggest that the diversity of a subset of human olfactory receptors (ORs) may have been maintained by balancing selection, in the form of overdominance. This observation may suggest that the loss of OR genes during the evolution of the human lineage may have been accompanied by an increased capability to discriminate odorants with closely similar structures.

引用

页码：997 / 1001

页数：5

共 39 条

[1] THE SICKLE-CELL AND HAEMOGLOBIN-C GENES IN SOME AFRICAN POPULATIONS [J].