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Domestic animals are excellent models for genetic studies of phenotypic evolution. They have evolved genetic adaptations to a new environment, the farm, and have been subjected to strong human-driven selection leading to remarkable phenotypic changes in morphology, physiology and behaviour. Identifying the genetic changes underlying these developments provides new insight into general mechanisms by which genetic variation shapes phenotypic diversity. Here we describe the use of massively parallel sequencing to identify selective sweeps of favourable alleles and candidate mutations that have had a prominent role in the domestication of chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) and their subsequent specialization into broiler (meat-producing) and layer (egg-producing) chickens. We have generated 44.5-fold coverage of the chicken genome using pools of genomic DNA representing eight different populations of domestic chickens as well as red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), the major wild ancestor. We report more than 7,000,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, almost 1,300 deletions and a number of putative selective sweeps. One of the most striking selective sweeps found in all domestic chickens occurred at the locus for thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR), which has a pivotal role in metabolic regulation and photoperiod control of reproduction in vertebrates. Several of the selective sweeps detected in broilers overlapped genes associated with growth, appetite and metabolic regulation. We found little evidence that selection for loss-of-function mutations had a prominent role in chicken domestication, but we detected two deletions in coding sequences that we suggest are functionally important. This study has direct application to animal breeding and enhances the importance of the domestic chicken as a model organism for biomedical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resequencing of genomic regions that have been implicated by linkage and/or association studies to harbor genetic susceptibility loci represents a necessary step to identify causal variants. Massively parallel sequencing (MPS) offers the possibility of SNP discovery and frequency determination among pooled DNA samples. The strategies of pooling DNA samples and pooling PCR amplicons generated from individual DNA samples were evaluated, and both were found to return accurate estimates of SNP frequencies across varying levels of sequence coverage.European Journal of Human Genetics (2009) 17, 383–386; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2008.182; published online 15 October 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sami of northern Scandinavia are genetic outliers among European populations and their origin has been difficult to determine. In order to study the genetic origin of the Swedish Sami, we have performed high-resolution typing of the class I HLA-A and -B loci and the class II DRB1, DQB1 and DQA1 loci in the northern and southern Swedish Sami. Several of the common class I alleles in Sami (B*0702, B*1501, B*4002 and A*0301) are found at high frequency in other European populations. However, a number of class I and class II alleles (B*4001, A*2402, DRB1*0901 and DRB1*1101) in the Swedish Sami are characteristic of Asian populations. Admixture analyses indicate that 87% of the Sami gene pool is of European origin and that the Asian contribution is 13%. Our HLA analyses indicate a higher proportion of Asian ancestry in the Sami than shown by previous genetic studies.European Journal of Human Genetics (2008) 16, 1341–1349; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2008.88; published online 14 May 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is a multifactorial disease influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. We have previously found linkage to 9q32 in a genomewide scan of affected sib-pairs (ASPs) with cervical cancer and to the thymic stromal co-transporter ( TSCOT), a candidate gene in this region. Here we examined the contribution of 9q32 and TSCOT to cervical cancer susceptibility using at larger material of 641 ASPs, 278 of which were included in the earlier genome-scan. Since heritable forms of cancer frequently show stronger genetic effects in families with early onset of disease, we stratified the ASPs into two groups based on mean age at diagnosis (MAAD) within sib-pairs. Surprisingly, ASPs with high MAAD (30.5–47.5 years) showed increased sharing at all microsatellite markers at 9q31.1–33.1 and linkage signals of up to MLS = 2.74 for TSCOT SNPs, while ASPs with low MAAD (19–30 years) showed no deviation from random genetic sharing (MLS = 0.00). The difference in allelic sharing between the two MAAD strata was significant ( P < 0.005) and is not likely to be explained by the HLA haplotype, a previously known genetic susceptibility factor for cervical cancer. Our results indicate locus heterogeneity in the susceptibility to cervical cancer between the two strata, with polymorphisms in the 9q32 region mainly showing an effect in women with high MAAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic origin of the Sami is enigmatic and contributions from Continental Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia have been proposed. To address the evolutionary history of northern and southern Swedish Sami, we have studied their mtDNA haplogroup frequencies and complete mtDNA genome sequences. While the majority of mtDNA diversity in the northern Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Sami is accounted for by haplogroups V and U5b1b1, the southern Swedish Sami have other haplogroups and a frequency distribution similar to that of the Continental European population. Stratification of the southern Sami on the basis of occupation indicates that this is the result of recent admixture with the Swedish population. The divergence time for the Sami haplogroup V sequences is 7600 YBP (years before present), and for U5b1b1, 5500 YBP amongst Sami and 6600 YBP amongst Sami and Finns. This suggests an arrival in the region soon after the retreat of the glacial ice, either by way of Continental Europe and/or the Volga-Ural region. Haplogroup Z is found at low frequency in the Sami and Northern Asian populations but is virtually absent in Europe. Several conserved substitutions group the Sami Z lineages strongly with those from Finland and the Volga-Ural region of Russia, but distinguish them from Northeast Asian representatives. This suggests that some Sami lineages shared a common ancestor with lineages from the Volga-Ural region as recently as 2700 years ago, indicative of a more recent contribution of people from the Volga-Ural region to the Sami population.European Journal of Human Genetics (2007) 15, 115–120. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201712; published online 20 September 2006 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the global mitochondrial DNA diversity in humans based on analyses of the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of 53 humans of diverse origins. Purpose of improving the information obtained from the mitochondrial molecule for studies of human evolution; Concurrent view on human evolution with respect to the age of modern humans, which is provided.