Title Disentangling archaic introgression and genomic signatures of selection at human immunity genes /
Authors Urnikytė, Alina ; Masiulytė, Abigailė ; Pranckėnienė, Laura ; Kučinskas, Vaidutis
DOI 10.1016/j.meegid.2023.105528
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Is Part of Infection, genetics and evolution.. Amsterdam : Elsevier BV. 2023, vol. 116, art. no. 105528, p. [1-9].. ISSN 1567-1348. eISSN 1567-7257
Keywords [eng] WGS ; Lithuanian population ; Positive selection ; Immunity genes ; Neanderthal ; Introgression
Abstract [eng] Pathogens and infectious diseases have imposed exceptionally strong selective pressure on ancient and modern human genomes and contributed to the current variation in many genes. There is evidence that modern humans acquired immune variants through interbreeding with ancient hominins, but the impact of such variants on human traits is not fully understood. The main objectives of this research were to infer the genetic signatures of positive selection that may be involved in adaptation to infectious diseases and to investigate the function of Neanderthal alleles identified within a set of 50 Lithuanian genomes. Introgressed regions were identified using the machine learning tool ArchIE. Recent positive selection signatures were analysed using iHS. We detected high-scoring signals of positive selection at innate immunity genes (EMB, PARP8, HLAC, and CDSN) and evaluated their interactions with the structural proteins of pathogens. Interactions with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 1 and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were identified. Overall, genomic regions introgressed from Neanderthals were shown to be enriched in genes related to immunity, keratinocyte differentiation, and sensory perception.
Published Amsterdam : Elsevier BV
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2023
CC license CC license description