3 votes

Promoter regions of many neural- and nutrition-related genes have experienced positive selection during human evolution

Ralph Haygood¹, Olivier Fedrigo², Brian Hanson¹, Ken-Daigoro Yokoyama¹ & Gregory Wray³

Correspondence: (Login to view email address)

1. Duke University, Biology Department
2. Duke University, Biology Department and Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy
3. Duke University, Biology

PDF (1.7 MB)

Document Type:

Manuscript

Date:

Received 18 June 2007 21:04 UTC; Posted 13 July 2007

Subjects:

Genetics & Genomics, Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Biology

Tags:

• neural development
• gene regulation
• evolutionary chimpanzee cognition behavior

Abstract:

Surveys of protein-coding sequences for evidence of positive selection in humans and chimpanzees have flagged surprisingly few genes known to be involved in neural or nutritional processes, despite the pronounced differences between humans and chimpanzees in behavior, cognition, and diet. It may be that most such differences are due to changes in gene regulation rather than protein structure. Here, we present the first survey of promoter (5’-flanking) regions, which are rich in cis-regulatory sequences, for signatures of positive selection in humans. Our results indicate that positive selection has targeted the regulation of many genes known to be involved in neural development and function, both in the brain and elsewhere in the nervous system, and in nutrition, particularly glucose metabolism.

Discussion

Votes:

3 votes

(Login to vote)

Comments:

0 comments

(Login to post a comment)

Share:

(Login to share with a colleague)

Additional information

License:

This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

How to cite this document:

Haygood, Ralph, Fedrigo, Olivier, Hanson, Brian, Yokoyama, Ken-Daigoro, and Wray, Gregory. Promoter regions of many neural- and nutrition-related genes have experienced positive selection during human evolution. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2007.69.1> (2007)

Version info:

Published version:

http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng2104.html (Peer Reviewed) Published in Nature Genetics 39, 1140 - 1144 (2007)

Other versions of this document in Nature Precedings

None.

Other versions of this document elsewhere on the web

None known.

Submit a new version link