Classic Selective Sweeps Were Rare in Recent Human Evolution.

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Title:	Classic Selective Sweeps Were Rare in Recent Human Evolution.
Authors:	Hernandez, Ryan D., Kelley, Joanna L., Elyashiv, Eyal, Melton, S. Cord, Auton, Adam, McVean, Gilean, Sella, Guy, Przeworski, Molly
Source:	Science (pre-March 2025). 2/18/2011, Vol. 331 Issue 6019, p920-924. 5p.
Subjects:	Polymorphism (Zoology), Natural selection, Genetic mutation, Nucleotide sequence, Genomics, Amino acids
Abstract:	Efforts to identify the genetic basis of human adaptations from polymorphism data have sought footprints of "classic selective sweeps" (in which a beneficial mutation arises and rapidly fixes in the population). Yet it remains unknown whether this form of natural selection was common in our evolution. We examined the evidence for classic sweeps in resequencing data from 179 human genomes. As expected under a recurrent-sweep model, we found that diversity levels decrease near exons and conserved noncoding regions. In contrast to expectation, however, the trough in diversity around human-specific amino acid substitutions is no more pronounced than around synonymous substitutions. Moreover, relative to the genome background, amino acid and putative regulatory sites are not significantly enriched in alleles that are highly differentiated between populations. These findings indicate that classic sweeps were not a dominant mode of human adaptation over the past ∼250,000 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
	Copyright of Science (pre-March 2025) is the property of American Association for the Advancement of Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database:	Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Description
Abstract:	Efforts to identify the genetic basis of human adaptations from polymorphism data have sought footprints of "classic selective sweeps" (in which a beneficial mutation arises and rapidly fixes in the population). Yet it remains unknown whether this form of natural selection was common in our evolution. We examined the evidence for classic sweeps in resequencing data from 179 human genomes. As expected under a recurrent-sweep model, we found that diversity levels decrease near exons and conserved noncoding regions. In contrast to expectation, however, the trough in diversity around human-specific amino acid substitutions is no more pronounced than around synonymous substitutions. Moreover, relative to the genome background, amino acid and putative regulatory sites are not significantly enriched in alleles that are highly differentiated between populations. These findings indicate that classic sweeps were not a dominant mode of human adaptation over the past ∼250,000 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	00368075
DOI:	10.1126/science.1198878