Letter abstract
Nature Genetics 39, 1140 - 1144 (2007)
Published online: 12 August 2007 | doi:10.1038/ng2104
Promoter regions of many neural- and nutrition-related genes have experienced positive selection during human evolution
Ralph Haygood1,3, Olivier Fedrigo1,2,3, Brian Hanson1, Ken-Daigoro Yokoyama1 & Gregory A Wray1,2
Surveys of protein-coding sequences for evidence of positive selection in humans or chimpanzees have flagged only a few genes known to function in neural or nutritional processes1, 2, 3, 4, 5, despite pronounced differences between humans and chimpanzees in behavior, cognition and diet6, 7, 8. It may be that most such differences are due to changes in gene regulation rather than protein structure9. Here, we present the first survey of promoter (5'-flanking) regions, which are rich in cis-regulatory sequences, for evidence 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 in glucose metabolism.
- Biology Department, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
- Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence to: Ralph Haygood1,3 e-mail: rhaygood@duke.edu
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