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Natural Selection in the Great Apes.

Cagan, A; Theunert, C; Laayouni, H; Santpere, G; Pybus, M; Casals, F; Prüfer, K; ... Andrés, AM; + view all (2016) Natural Selection in the Great Apes. Mol Biol Evol , 33 (12) pp. 3268-3283. 10.1093/molbev/msw215. Green open access

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Abstract

Natural selection is crucial for the adaptation of populations to their environments. Here, we present the first global study of natural selection in the Hominidae (humans and great apes) based on genome-wide information from population samples representing all extant species (including most subspecies). Combining several neutrality tests we create a multi-species map of signatures of natural selection covering all major types of natural selection. We find that the estimated efficiency of both purifying and positive selection varies between species and is significantly correlated with their long-term effective population size. Thus, even the modest differences in population size among the closely related Hominidae lineages have resulted in differences in their ability to remove deleterious alleles and to adapt to changing environments. Most signatures of balancing and positive selection are species-specific, with signatures of balancing selection more often being shared among species. We also identify loci with evidence of positive selection across several lineages. Notably, we detect signatures of positive selection in several genes related to brain function, anatomy, diet and immune processes. Our results contribute to a better understanding of human evolution by putting the evidence of natural selection in humans within its larger evolutionary context. The global map of natural selection in our closest living relatives is available as an interactive browser at http://tinyurl.com/nf8qmzh.

Type: Article
Title: Natural Selection in the Great Apes.
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msw215
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msw215
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
Keywords: Adaptation, comparative genomics, evolution, primates., Alleles, Animals, Biological Evolution, Databases, Nucleic Acid, Evolution, Molecular, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Hominidae, Humans, Metagenomics, Polymorphism, Genetic, Selection, Genetic, Sequence Analysis, DNA
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040180
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