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Published online 5 September 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070903-6

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Schizophrenia genes 'favoured by evolution'

Sequences linked to brain disorder show hallmarks of natural selection.

The genes that underpin schizophrenia may have been favoured by natural selection, according to a survey of human and primate genetic sequences. The discovery suggests that genes linked to the debilitating brain condition conferred some advantage that allowed them to persist in the population — although it is far from clear what this advantage might have been.

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