Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on June 2, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2006 23(8):1592-1601; doi:10.1093/molbev/msl024
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/8/1592    most recent
msl024v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (5)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Verrelli, B. C.
Right arrow Articles by Touchman, J. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Verrelli, B. C.
Right arrow Articles by Touchman, J. W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

Contrasting Histories of G6PD Molecular Evolution and Malarial Resistance in Humans and Chimpanzees

Brian C. Verrelli*,{dagger}, Sarah A. Tishkoff{ddagger}, Anne C. Stone§ and Jeffrey W. Touchman*,{dagger}

* Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics, The Biodesign Institute, Tempe, Arizona; {dagger} School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe; {ddagger} Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park; § School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe; and The Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, Arizona

E-mail: brian.verrelli{at}asu.edu.

Although mutations in the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) gene result in several blood-related diseases in humans, they also confer resistance to malarial infection. This association between G6PD and malaria was supported by population genetic analyses of the G6PD locus, which indicated that these mutations may have recently risen in frequency in certain geographic regions as a result of positive selection. Here we characterize nucleotide sequence variation in a 5.2-kb region of the G6PD locus in a population sample of 56 chimpanzees, as well as among 7 other nonhuman primates, to compare with that in humans in determining whether other primates that are impacted by malaria also exhibit patterns of G6PD polymorphism or divergence consistent with positive selection. We find that chimpanzees have several amino acid variants but that the overall pattern at G6PD in chimpanzees, as well as in Old and New World primates in general, can be explained by recent purifying selection as well as strong functional constraint dating back to at least 30–40 MYA. These comparative analyses suggest that the recent signature of positive selection at G6PD in humans is unique.

Key Words: glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase • malarial resistance • chimpanzee


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
B. C. Verrelli, C. M. Lewis Jr, A. C. Stone, and G. H. Perry
Different Selective Pressures Shape the Molecular Evolution of Color Vision in Chimpanzee and Human Populations
Mol. Biol. Evol., December 1, 2008; 25(12): 2735 - 2743.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
G. H. Perry, R. Y. Tito, and B. C. Verrelli
The Evolutionary History of Human and Chimpanzee Y-Chromosome Gene Loss
Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2007; 24(3): 853 - 859.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.