Convergent Evolution of Gene for Decreased Risk of Alcoholism

Angela

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Fast Principal-Component Analysis Reveals Convergent Evolution of ADH1B in Europe and East Asia

http://www.cell.com/ajhg/abstract/S0002-9297(16)00003-3

ADH1B is associated with decreased risk of alcoholism. It was previously discovered in East Asians, so this would be a case of convergent evolution.

A "T" at rs1229984 is protective. I knew I had it, and I'm sure I got it from my mother, who probably was homozygous for it, unlike me. My father's family like their drink, even if they control it.

The other two sites which seem to be under selection are IGFBP3, which seems to be related to tumor suppression, and IGH, which has to do with immune response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGFBP3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGH@

I'll see if I can find the full text somewhere.
 
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thank you!

This is the distribution of the protective allele against alcoholism in East Asia.
12862_2009_Article_1231_Fig1_HTML.jpg


To me it looks like a spread from the heart of the original agricultural lands of China, around the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.

I can't find a link to the whole map, but it can be found in this pdf. The West Eurasian variety looks to radiate from around Mesopotamia, which I also think makes perfect sense. I think we should be wary of the percentages as they didn't sample every country in Europe or every area in every country, but they found the highest percentages in Persians, Turks, Samaritans and Jews.

http://tools.medicine.yale.edu/kidd/www/465.pdf

I found the paper in preprint form:
http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2015/04/16/018143.full.pdf

These are the supplements:
http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/suppl/2015/04/16/018143.DC1/018143-1.pdf

" Genetic variation in IGFBP3 is associated with increased risk of breast cancer, and is also associated with pulse pressure, blood pressure and hypertension. The IGH immunoglobulin snps had one genome-wide-significant SNP and two suggestive SNPs...Genetic variation in IGH is associated with multiple schlerosis...FBP3 and IGH SNPs each had substantially higher minor allele frequencies in Eastern European."

Oh, and you're very welcome.
 

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