Interrogating a High-Density SNP Map for Signatures of Natural Selection

Identifying genomic regions that have been targets of natural selection remains one of the most important and challenging areas of research in genetics. To this end, we report an analysis of 26,530 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with allele frequencies that were determined in three populations. Specifically, we calculated a measure of genetic differentiation, F(ST), for each locus and examined its distribution at the level of the genome, the chromosome, and individual genes. Through a variety of analyses, we have found statistically significant evidence supporting the hypothesis that selection has influenced extant patterns of human genetic variation. Importantly, by contrasting the F(ST) of individual…

• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• NH
  National Human Genome Research Institute