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Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome
Infectious diseases and epidemics have always accompanied and characterized human history, representing one of the main causes of death. Even today, despite progress in sanitation and medical research, infections are estimated to account for about 15% of deaths. The hypothesis whereby infectious dis...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3603197/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23533945 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/204240 |
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author | Cagliani, Rachele Sironi, Manuela |
author_facet | Cagliani, Rachele Sironi, Manuela |
author_sort | Cagliani, Rachele |
collection | PubMed |
description | Infectious diseases and epidemics have always accompanied and characterized human history, representing one of the main causes of death. Even today, despite progress in sanitation and medical research, infections are estimated to account for about 15% of deaths. The hypothesis whereby infectious diseases have been acting as a powerful selective pressure was formulated long ago, but it was not until the availability of large-scale genetic data and the development of novel methods to study molecular evolution that we could assess how pervasively infectious agents have shaped human genetic diversity. Indeed, recent evidences indicated that among the diverse environmental factors that acted as selective pressures during the evolution of our species, pathogen load had the strongest influence. Beside the textbook example of the major histocompatibility complex, selection signatures left by pathogen-exerted pressure can be identified at several human loci, including genes not directly involved in immune response. In the future, high-throughput technologies and the availability of genetic data from different populations are likely to provide novel insights into the evolutionary relationships between the human host and its pathogens. Hopefully, this will help identify the genetic determinants modulating the susceptibility to infectious diseases and will translate into new treatment strategies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3603197 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36031972013-03-26 Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome Cagliani, Rachele Sironi, Manuela Int J Evol Biol Review Article Infectious diseases and epidemics have always accompanied and characterized human history, representing one of the main causes of death. Even today, despite progress in sanitation and medical research, infections are estimated to account for about 15% of deaths. The hypothesis whereby infectious diseases have been acting as a powerful selective pressure was formulated long ago, but it was not until the availability of large-scale genetic data and the development of novel methods to study molecular evolution that we could assess how pervasively infectious agents have shaped human genetic diversity. Indeed, recent evidences indicated that among the diverse environmental factors that acted as selective pressures during the evolution of our species, pathogen load had the strongest influence. Beside the textbook example of the major histocompatibility complex, selection signatures left by pathogen-exerted pressure can be identified at several human loci, including genes not directly involved in immune response. In the future, high-throughput technologies and the availability of genetic data from different populations are likely to provide novel insights into the evolutionary relationships between the human host and its pathogens. Hopefully, this will help identify the genetic determinants modulating the susceptibility to infectious diseases and will translate into new treatment strategies. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 2013-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3603197/ /pubmed/23533945 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/204240 Text en Copyright © 2013 R. Cagliani and M. Sironi. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Review Article Cagliani, Rachele Sironi, Manuela Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome |
title | Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome |
title_full | Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome |
title_fullStr | Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome |
title_full_unstemmed | Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome |
title_short | Pathogen-Driven Selection in the Human Genome |
title_sort | pathogen-driven selection in the human genome |
topic | Review Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3603197/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23533945 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/204240 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT caglianirachele pathogendrivenselectioninthehumangenome AT sironimanuela pathogendrivenselectioninthehumangenome |