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Evolutionary dynamics of the human ABO gene

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Abstract

The ABO polymorphism has long been suspected to be under balancing selection. To explore this possibility, we analyzed two datasets: (1) a set of 94 23-Kb sequences in European- and African-Americans produced by the Seattle SNPs project, and (2) a set of 814 2-Kb sequences in O alleles from seven worldwide populations. A phylogenetic analysis of the Seattle sequences showed a complex pattern in which the action of recombination and gene conversion are evident, and in which four main lineages could be individuated. The sequence patterns could be linked to the expected blood group phenotype; in particular, the main mutation giving rise to the null O allele is likely to have appeared at least three times in human evolution, giving rise to allele lineages O02, O01, and O09. However, the genealogy changes along the gene and variations of both numbers of branches and of their time depth were observed, which could result from a combined action of recombination and selection. Several neutrality tests clearly demonstrated deviations compatible with balancing selection, peaking at several locations along the gene. The time depth of the genealogy was also incompatible with neutral evolution, particularly in the region from exons 6 to 7, which codes for most of the catalytic domain.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to especially thank Deborah Nickerson at the University of Washington, for making the excellently curated Seattle SNP sequence database openly available to researchers. This work was supported by grants BFU2004-02002 and BFU2007-63657 from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and DURSI, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grup de Recerca Consolidat 2005SGR00608), as well as with funds from Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS) Pyrénées-Méditerranée and Centre Atlantique, and from Ministère Français de la Recherche (EA3034).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unitat de Biologia Evolutiva, Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Doctor Aiguader, 80, 08003, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Francesc Calafell, Anna Ramírez-Soriano & Jaume Bertranpetit

  2. CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain

    Francesc Calafell & Jaume Bertranpetit

  3. Etablissement Français du sang Centre Atlantique, BP 52009, Tours, 37020, Cedex 1, France

    Francis Roubinet

  4. Laboratoire d’Immunogénétique Moléculaire, Faculté de Médecine Purpan, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Bâtiment A2, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 4, France

    Francis Roubinet & Antoine Blancher

  5. Division of Population Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, 411-8540, Japan

    Naruya Saitou

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  1. Francesc Calafell
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  2. Francis Roubinet
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Correspondence to Francesc Calafell.

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Calafell, F., Roubinet, F., Ramírez-Soriano, A. et al. Evolutionary dynamics of the human ABO gene. Hum Genet 124, 123–135 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-008-0530-8

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