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Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans

Although genetic variation among humans in their susceptibility to infectious diseases has long been appreciated, little focus has been devoted to identifying patterns in levels of variation in susceptibility to different diseases. Levels of genetic variation in susceptibility associated with 40 hum...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Baker, Christi, Antonovics, Janis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252296/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22242158
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029089
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author Baker, Christi
Antonovics, Janis
author_facet Baker, Christi
Antonovics, Janis
author_sort Baker, Christi
collection PubMed
description Although genetic variation among humans in their susceptibility to infectious diseases has long been appreciated, little focus has been devoted to identifying patterns in levels of variation in susceptibility to different diseases. Levels of genetic variation in susceptibility associated with 40 human infectious diseases were assessed by a survey of studies on both pedigree-based quantitative variation, as well as studies on different classes of marker alleles. These estimates were correlated with pathogen traits, epidemiological characteristics, and effectiveness of the human immune response. The strongest predictors of levels of genetic variation in susceptibility were disease characteristics negatively associated with immune effectiveness. High levels of genetic variation were associated with diseases with long infectious periods and for which vaccine development attempts have been unsuccessful. These findings are consistent with predictions based on theoretical models incorporating fitness costs associated with the different types of resistance mechanisms. An appreciation of these observed patterns will be a valuable tool in directing future research given that genetic variation in disease susceptibility has large implications for vaccine development and epidemiology.
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spelling pubmed-32522962012-01-12 Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans Baker, Christi Antonovics, Janis PLoS One Research Article Although genetic variation among humans in their susceptibility to infectious diseases has long been appreciated, little focus has been devoted to identifying patterns in levels of variation in susceptibility to different diseases. Levels of genetic variation in susceptibility associated with 40 human infectious diseases were assessed by a survey of studies on both pedigree-based quantitative variation, as well as studies on different classes of marker alleles. These estimates were correlated with pathogen traits, epidemiological characteristics, and effectiveness of the human immune response. The strongest predictors of levels of genetic variation in susceptibility were disease characteristics negatively associated with immune effectiveness. High levels of genetic variation were associated with diseases with long infectious periods and for which vaccine development attempts have been unsuccessful. These findings are consistent with predictions based on theoretical models incorporating fitness costs associated with the different types of resistance mechanisms. An appreciation of these observed patterns will be a valuable tool in directing future research given that genetic variation in disease susceptibility has large implications for vaccine development and epidemiology. Public Library of Science 2012-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3252296/ /pubmed/22242158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029089 Text en Baker, Antonovics. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Baker, Christi
Antonovics, Janis
Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans
title Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans
title_full Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans
title_fullStr Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans
title_full_unstemmed Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans
title_short Evolutionary Determinants of Genetic Variation in Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Humans
title_sort evolutionary determinants of genetic variation in susceptibility to infectious diseases in humans
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252296/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22242158
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029089
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