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Evolutionary genomics

A positive becomes a negative

Nature volume 457, pages 543–544 (2009)Cite this article

Which human genes have been hotspots for positive selection? Analyses of the top candidates reveal, not genes subject to such selection, but genes that have probably been subject to biased DNA repair.

To find out what makes us humans unique, we can look for genes, and ours alone, in which Darwinian positive selection has occurred. In principle, genes thought to be hotspots for positive selection can be discovered by genome scans that pinpoint especially fast evolutionary change in DNA sequences1,2,3. Work by Berglund et al.4 and Galtier et al.5, however, undermines the assumed connection between fast evolution and pervasive positive selection. Instead, it seems that hotspots have probably accelerated evolution by means of a biased DNA repair process, not because the changes were good for us. Indeed, many changes are probably detrimental.

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Figure 1: Identification of a gene segment showing unusually rapid evolution.

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  1. Laurence D. Hurst is in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. l.d.hurst@bath.ac.uk,

    Laurence D. Hurst

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  1. Laurence D. Hurst
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Hurst, L. A positive becomes a negative. Nature 457, 543–544 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457543a

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