Balancing selection at the prion protein gene consistent with prehistoric kurulike epidemics

被引：277

作者：

Mead, S

Stumpf, MPH

Whitfield, J

Beck, JA

Poulter, M

Campbell, T

Uphill, JB

Goldstein, D

Alpers, M

Fisher, EMC

Collinge, J

机构：

[1] Univ Coll, Inst Neurol, MRC, Prion Unit, London WC1N 3BG, England

[2] Univ Coll, Inst Neurol, Dept Neurodegenerat Dis, London WC1N 3BG, England

[3] UCL, Dept Biol, Galton Lab, London WC1E 6BT, England

[4] Inst Med Res, Goroka, EHP, Papua N Guinea

[5] Curtin Univ Technol, Perth, WA 6001, Australia

来源：

SCIENCE | 2003年 / 300卷 / 5619期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1126/science.1083320

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Kuru is an acquired prion disease largely restricted to the Fore linguistic group of the Papua New Guinea Highlands, which was transmitted during endocannibalistic feasts. Heterozygosity for a common polymorphism in the human prion protein gene (PRNP) confers relative resistance to prion diseases. Elderly survivors of the kuru epidemic, who had multiple exposures at mortuary feasts, are, in marked contrast to younger unexposed Fore, predominantly PRNP 129 heterozygotes. Kuru imposed strong balancing selection on the Fore, essentially eliminating PRNP 129 homozygotes. Worldwide PRNP haplotype diversity and coding allele frequencies suggest that strong balancing selection at this locus occurred during the evolution of modern humans.

引用

页码：640 / 643

页数：4

共 24 条

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