Recent Selection on a Class I ADH Locus Distinguishes Southwest Asian Populations Including Ashkenazi Jews

Sheng Gu; Hui Li; Andrew J Pakstis; William C Speed; David Gurwitz; Judith R Kidd; Kenneth K Kidd

doi:10.3390/genes9090452

Recent Selection on a Class I ADH Locus Distinguishes Southwest Asian Populations Including Ashkenazi Jews

Genes (Basel). 2018 Sep 7;9(9):452. doi: 10.3390/genes9090452.

Authors

Sheng Gu^{1

2}, Hui Li³, Andrew J Pakstis⁴, William C Speed⁵, David Gurwitz⁶, Judith R Kidd⁷, Kenneth K Kidd⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. sheng_gu@yahoo.com.
² Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. sheng_gu@yahoo.com.
³ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. lhca@fudan.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. andrew.pakstis@yale.edu.
⁵ Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. william.speed@yale.edu.
⁶ Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. gurwitz@post.tau.ac.il.
⁷ Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. judith.kidd@yale.edu.
⁸ Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. kenneth.kidd@yale.edu.

Abstract

The derived human alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)1B*48His allele of the ADH1B Arg48His polymorphism (rs1229984) has been identified as one component of an East Asian specific core haplotype that underwent recent positive selection. Our study has been extended to Southwest Asia and additional markers in East Asia. F_st values (Sewall Wright's fixation index) and long-range haplotype analyses identify a strong signature of selection not only in East Asian but also in Southwest Asian populations. However, except for the ADH2B*48His allele, different core haplotypes occur in Southwest Asia compared to East Asia and the extended haplotypes also differ. Thus, the ADH1B*48His allele, as part of a core haplotype of 10 kb, has undergone recent rapid increases in frequency independently in the two regions after divergence of the respective populations. Emergence of agriculture may be the common factor underlying the evident selection.

Keywords: alcohol dehydrogenase; genetic selection; population genetics.

Grants and funding

AA009379, GM57672/National Institutes of Health