eprintid: 83235 rev_number: 48 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/00/08/32/35 datestamp: 2010-10-18 01:50:50 lastmod: 2022-01-03 23:30:30 status_changed: 2010-10-18 01:50:50 type: article metadata_visibility: show item_issues_count: 0 creators_name: Drenos, F creators_name: Kirkwood, TBL title: Selection on Alleles Affecting Human Longevity and Late-Life Disease: The Example of Apolipoprotein E ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: D14 keywords: CORONARY-HEART-DISEASE, MIDDLE-AGED MEN, E POLYMORPHISM, E GENOTYPE, E GENE, ALZHEIMER-DISEASE, COMMON OUTCOMES, RELATIVE RISK, III HYPERLIPOPROTEINEMIA, CARDIOVASCULAR-DISEASE note: © 2010 Drenos, Kirkwood. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The authors thank the Dr Hadwen Trust for financial support (http://www.drhadwentrust.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. abstract: It is often claimed that genes affecting health in old age, such as cardiovascular and Alzheimer diseases, are beyond the reach of natural selection. We show in a simulation study based on known genetic (apolipoprotein E) and non-genetic risk factors (gender, diet, smoking, alcohol, exercise) that, because there is a statistical distribution of ages at which these genes exert their influence on morbidity and mortality, the effects of selection are in fact non-negligible. A gradual increase with each generation of the epsilon 2 and epsilon 3 alleles of the gene at the expense of the epsilon 4 allele was predicted from the model. The epsilon 2 allele frequency was found to increase slightly more rapidly than that for epsilon 3, although there was no statistically significant difference between the two. Our result may explain the recent evolutionary history of the epsilon 2, 3 and 4 alleles of the apolipoprotein E gene and has wider relevance for genes affecting human longevity. date: 2010-04-02 publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010022 vfaculties: VFPHS oa_status: green language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green article_type_text: Article verified: verified_batch elements_source: Web of Science elements_id: 217554 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010022 language_elements: EN lyricists_name: Drenos, Fotios lyricists_id: FDREN62 full_text_status: public publication: PLOS ONE volume: 5 number: 3 article_number: e10022 pagerange: - issn: 1932-6203 citation: Drenos, F; Kirkwood, TBL; (2010) Selection on Alleles Affecting Human Longevity and Late-Life Disease: The Example of Apolipoprotein E. PLOS ONE , 5 (3) , Article e10022. 10.1371/journal.pone.0010022 <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010022>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/83235/1/83235.pdf