"Eight thousand years of natural selection in Europe" preprint - updated with Anatolian Neolithic and other data

Eight thousand years of natural selection in Europe

The arrival of farming in Europe around 8,500 years ago necessitated adaptation to new environments, pathogens, diets, and social organizations. While indirect evidence of adaptation can be detected in patterns of genetic variation in present-day people, ancient DNA makes it possible to witness selection directly by analyzing samples from populations before, during and after adaptation events. Here we report the first genome-wide scan for selection using ancient DNA, capitalizing on the largest genome-wide dataset yet assembled: 230 West Eurasians dating to between 6500 and 1000 BCE, including 163 with newly reported data. The new samples include the first genome-wide data from the Anatolian Neolithic culture, who we show were members of the population that was the source of Europe's first farmers, and whose genetic material we extracted by focusing on the DNA-rich petrous bone. We identify genome-wide significant signatures of selection at loci associated with diet, pigmentation and immunity, and two independent episodes of selection on height. [. . .]

Our sample of 26 Anatolian Neolithic individuals represents the first genome-wide ancient DNA data from the eastern Mediterranean. Our success at analyzing such a large number of samples is likely due to the fact that at the Barcin site–the source of 21 of the working samples–we sampled from the cochlea of the petrous bone 9 , which has been shown to increase the amount of DNA obtained by up to two orders of magnitude relative to teeth (the next-most-promising tissue) 3 . Principal component (PCA) and ADMIXTURE 10 analysis, shows that the Anatolian Neolithic samples do not resemble any present-day Near Eastern populations but are shifted towards Europe, clustering with Neolithic European farmers (EEF) from Germany, Hungary, and Spain 7 (Fig. 1b, Extended Data Fig. 2). Further evidence that the Anatolian Neolithic and EEF were related comes from the high frequency (47%; n=15) of Y-chromosome haplogroup G2a typical of ancient EEF samples 7 (Supplementary Data Table 1), and the low F ST (0.005-0.016) between Neolithic Anatolians and EEF (Supplementary Data Table 2). These results support the hypothesis 7 of a common ancestral population of EEF prior to their dispersal along distinct inland/central European and coastal/Mediterranean routes. The EEF are slightly more shifted to Europe in the PCA than are the Anatolian Neolithic (Fig. 1b) and have significantly more admixture from Western hunter-gatherers (WHG), shown by f 4 -statistics (|Z|>6 standard errors from 0) and negative f 3 -statistics (|Z|>4) 11 (Extended Data Table 3). We estimate that the EEF have 7- 11% more WHG admixture than their Anatolian relatives (Extended Data Fig. 2, Supplementary Information section 2).

On the presence of the "East Asian" EDAR variant in Scandinavian hunter-gatherers:
We find a surprise in six Scandinavian hunter-gatherers (SHG) from the Motala site in southern Sweden. In three out of six samples, we observe the haplotype carrying the derived allele of rs3827760 in the EDAR gene (Extended Data Fig. 5), which affects tooth morphology and hair thickness and has been the subject of a selective sweep in East Asia 24 , and today is at high frequency in East Asians and Native Americans. The EDAR derived allele is largely absent in present-day Europe except in Scandinavia, plausibly due to Siberian movements into the region millennia after the date of the Motala samples. The SHG have no evidence of East Asian ancestry 4,7 , suggesting that the EDAR derived allele may not have originated not in East Asians as previously suggested 24 . A second surprise is that, unlike closely related western hunter-gatherers, the Motala samples have predominantly derived pigmentation alleles at SLC45A2 and SLC24A5.
Polygenic selection on height in Europe:

We also tested for selection on complex traits. The best-documented example of this process in humans is height, for which the differences between Northern and Southern Europe have driven by selection 25 . To test for this signal in our data, we used a statistic that tests whether trait-affecting alleles are both highly correlated and more differentiated, compared to randomly sampled alleles 26 . We predicted genetic heights for each population and applied the test to all populations together, as well as to pairs of populations (Fig. 4). Using 180 height-associated SNPs 27 (restricted to 169 where we successfully targeted at least two chromosomes in each population), we detect a significant signal of directional selection on height (p=0.002). Applying this to pairs of populations allows us to detect two independent signals. First, the Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic samples show selection for reduced height relative to both the Anatolian Neolithic (p=0.042) and the Central European Early and Middle Neolithic (p=0.003). Second, we detect a signal for increased height in the steppe populations (p=0.030 relative to the Central European Early and Middle Neolithic). These results suggest that the modern South-North gradient in height across Europe is due to both increased steppe ancestry in northern populations, and selection for decreased height in Early Neolithic migrants to southern Europe. We do not observe any other significant signals of polygenetic selection in five other complex traits we tested: body mass index 28 (p=0.20), waist-to-hip ratio 29 (p=0.51), type 2 diabetes 30 (p=0.37), inflammatory bowel disease 21 (p=0.17) and lipid levels 16 (p=0.50).

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

the dutch are the tallest in europe at country level, though the dinaric alps (which includes a lot of muslims) is the tallest "identifiable" population in europe; think blanka vlasic.

but then, even in a country where 3/4s of the white population speaks dutch they lost for the third time in a row...to the shortest people in europe the spanish...

it should be remembered that for 150 years, spain was the richest and most powerful country on earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5yE9YWc9TU



Anonymous said...

and the british were the richest and most powerful on earth for about the same length of time, a sesquicentury.

but the british settled sparsely populated areas, areas which they could populate with british, and therefore the anglo-sphere has been in the ascendancy a century later than the apogee of the british empire.

Anonymous said...

so is david gergen a jew.

he's tall, but he has a super jewy face.

Anonymous said...

The U.S. and Israel have the worst inequality in the developed world.

if israel is part of the developed world.

what do the us and israel have in common?

n/a loves inequality, because he loves jewish cock...in all his holes.

Anonymous said...

n/a's like the thai or malaysian or filipino resentful that his country is run by "overseas" chinks.

or like the ugandan or kenyan or botswanan nigger resentful that east indians own his country.

or the indigenes of latin america or south africa resentful that europeans run and own their countries.

it's all the same...

just a matter of degree...(according to n/a)

except it's NOT!

stalin is reputed to have said, "no man. no problem."

better with respect to les etats unis merdeux is "no south. no problem."

but better still for the whole world is...

NO JEWS. NO PROBLEM.

HITLER WAS RIGHT.

HEIL HITLER!



Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter where EDAR originated. It's the gene that gives East Asians and Native Americans their main *racial* traits, and it was/is present in Scandinavians. Obviously it's related to the non-Caucasoid, Amerindian-like component of ANE that was brought to Scandinavia by H-Gs and again by "Siberian movements into the region millennia after the date of the Motala samples."

Anonymous said...

lincoln chafee, the farrier, had to leave the GOP, because it had been over-run by inbred hicks like n/a.

geogrpahy is destiny.

yet inbred hicks like n/a still imagine that the GOP is better than the Dems.

inbred 'mer'cans...what're ya gonna do?

gas 'em is best.

http://www.historycentral.com/elections/map/USAMAP1908.jpg

Santoculto said...

http://nazismo-verdades-e-mentiras.blogspot.com.br/

The conquest of Europe by the World Government makes its way unrestrictedly. It openly. This Coudenhouve-Kalergi Plan, which aims to create an amalgamated race in the Old Continent, is no longer secret. Its objective of generating a population with an average IQ of 90 - too stupid to understand, but smart enough to work - is endorsed by Thomas Barnett, American military strategist.

the new man, ;)

Anonymous said...

indeed saint brazilian guy...

as the swiss marc faber has put it...

america fucks up everything it gets involved with, or "with which it involves itself" for the school-marms.

what's happening in europe today is very interesting. nw europe has grown economically since 2008, but italy, spain, portugal, and greece are still in a depression.

one wonders if this is by design. if they had their own currency they'd be doing better.

and another lesson for conservatards...

one developed country has done even better than the US since 2008 in purely economic terms at least.

that country is SWEDEN.



Anonymous said...

as the super-jew stiglitz, or was it krugman, has commented...

by the dim lights of american conservatards there should be "grass growing in the streets" of sweden.

yet of all blackrock's country funds it's had the greatest total return. that's over 19 years. EWD has outperformed SPY since inception. whereas singapore EWS has been the second worst performer after japan EWJ.

it turns out that inequality is bad for capitalism and socialism is good for capitalism.

Santoculto said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3266948/Stay-f-t-Four-Hasidic-men-headed-trial-brutal-beatdown-gay-black-man-left-blind-one-eye-say-innocent.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490


Primitive retard jewish, i have a uncle who are a pathological liar, he look very jewish ''stereotype'' looking and is one of the most disgusting ''man'' of the world. Liar, retard who think every people are stupid to be ''bamboozled'', this idiotic deserve sterilization at least and castration.

Some interesting traits

-very higher energy for lies
- dirty appearance
- very very sympathetic, able to convince most people who are not little bit paranoid like him
- any remorse about your idiotic lies
- pedophile and criminal pre-dispositions


My uncle look/act very jewish-behaviour but ''without'' iq with 3 digits (good for us). He seems had read some piece of Joseph Goebbels, very good for manipulate people without mental energy and/or higher (intellectual) intelligence do not let be fooled.

Anonymous said...

and every day n/a jacks off to a picture of milton friedman or the drag queen Ayn Rand.

he's gay for jews.

marx called it "false consciousness".

n/a's a paradigmatic case.

Santoculto said...

http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/10/13/jewish-leaders-say-no-to-syrian-refugees-on-anti-semitism-concern/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPxv4Aff3IA

and conservatoids ''think''

''i support isisreal 'cause they are doing what we aren't doing'' (because certain primitive idiotic ''tribe'' is ''preventing'' them to do.)

Santoculto said...

"The man of the future will be the half-breed. [...]

Future euro-african-Asians, outwardly similar to Egyptian, will replace the diversity of peoples by the diversity of personalities. Because, according to the hereditary laws, diversity grows with the diversity of parents, the uniqueness with the uniqueness of the parents. In incestuous families, a son resembles another, because all represent the same type of family. [...] Incest generates characteristic types - Crossings generate unique personalities. "

[Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, "Praktischer Idealismus", 1925, p. 22/23]''


''Diversity'' of ''unique'' personalities among mixed race people***** LOL

They are, on average, just as other mono-race people but even worst... ;)

But make sense when he said that ''pure breed'' are/tend to be product of incest, make sense.


'' "The consequence is that the mestizo unite the lack of character, unscrupulousness, indolence, neglect, cruelty, and lack of loyalty to objectivity, flexibility, sharp mind, lack of prejudice and breadth of the horizon."

[Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, "Praktischer Idealismus", 1925, p. 21]''


Idiotic ''genius'', bluurr

''our'' lovely zelites are idiotics in its mental roots.

what ''mestizo'' have, zelites seems have too, ;)

Santoculto said...

''"[...] Judaism is the lap where will rise a new spiritual nobility of Europe; the core from which a new spiritual nobility will be grouped: idealistic, full of spirituality and accurate, fair and confident, courageous way as the feudal nobles in their best days, that joyfully face death and persecution, hatred and contempt for make the most spiritual humanity, happy and well-mannered. For courage, perseverance and idealism, the heroes and martyrs of the Jewish East European revolution and central leave nothing to be desired in relation to non-Jewish heroes of World War II -. However, the spiritual matter, they exceed the number of times "

[Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, "Praktischer Idealismus", 1925, p. 51]''


Put idiotic people to breed one each other and you give as likely result = ''royal'' mafias with megalomaniac dispositions.

Humans and ants

ANY real differences

humans on average are incredible idiotic!!!


''Spiritual'' nobles....

Anonymous said...

indeed brazilian guy, but n/a still imagines that jews are his enemies for reasons other than their being jews.

nope.

it's not that their another tribe among many other...other tribes...as n/a imagines.

it's that they're jews.

PER SE!

i never got why those in the know would deny the holocaust.

it happened.

and it was RIGHT.

Anonymous said...

...that they're another...

Anonymous said...

an an english language tabloid covering the netherlands?

how 'bout this jews?

jews are expelled and replaced with syrians.

sounds cool to me.

of course better would be to expel the jews and the syrians.

who knew there were any jews in NL?

Anonymous said...

and let's stop sucking jewish cock already.

why do the jews deserve a special 6 syllable word for hatred of jews.

new words...

JEW-PHOBE,

JEW-PHOBIA.

Santoculto said...

''i never got why those in the know would deny the holocaust.

it happened.

and it was RIGHT.''


Exactly, this retarded ones (protected ones by hbdDEARRRRS) elevate enormously the level of problems in almost all societies where they create roots, why not some people in a space and time wouldn't lost its patience and try to eliminate this virus... why not**


white trash is ridiculous, '''whites are naives'''

blurrr


i'm naive, we have to give right names for most of them

whites are STUPID, not naive, it's different.

holocaust deniers talk

''we'' are soooooo good people, we, whitey, is impossible that noble european soul's' could try to eliminate any people''

ok, ok

but

and amerindians** (amerindians wasn't literally eliminated by now, but a mix between slow genocide via iminvasion and mixing race, native americans are like latin language, a living-dead people without own land and being attacked by murrican globalist ''culture'' all the time..... but i hate every human ''cult-ure'')


I dislike this term phobia

the right term is aversion

and not just ''jews'' but other semitic people too, on average, of course.

So absurd and ridiculous what is happening now, but look for human ''story'' fairy tales...

If i'm white ( if i'm white...period) nationalist ''leader'' i use (correctly) this kind of strategy and i create a union with the first americans. ''We'' are the current native americans who are being dispossessed because jewtard=isms.

But not... opposition is lethargic and predictable. peace!!

Santoculto said...

REALLY smart jew will be those who will don't support explicitly their OWN/other unnecessary suffering and primitive conflict and accept the responsibility for collective human evolution.

Or it is just a silly idealism made by dostoyevskyan idiot.

Anonymous said...

the problem is again the inability of any blogger, let alone political party, to grasp the reality of norms of reaction.

most american whites are...disgusting...they're fat and stupid.

yet those still stewing in the jews' broth imagine that this is not really the case.

call a "spade" a spade, and a small headed greasy obese white trash moron what they are...

but that's not the point.

yet hbders think it is the point.

Anonymous said...

REALLY smart jew will be those who will don't support explicitly their OWN/other unnecessary suffering and primitive conflict and accept the responsibility for collective human evolution.

Or it is just a silly idealism made by dostoyevskyan idiot.


it's not silly at all.

and n/a is a conservatard in that he is so focused on something so trivial.

as if an america of nothing but descendants of puritans would be utopia.

it wouldn't be.

ethnic conflict is itself a distraction...

but distraction from what?

i don't know.

but i do know that what lenin said was TRUE.

there is no revolution without firing squads...

and the reason is quite straightforward.

people and peoples have "irreconcilable differences".

the happiness of one requires the misery of the other and vice versa.

contra rodney king...

we can NOT all just get along.

claims to the contrary are therefore necessarily just IDEOLOGY.

Anonymous said...

In Ancient DNA, Evidence of Plague Much Earlier Than Previously Known

Bacteria can change history.

In the 14th century, a microbe called Yersinia pestis caused an epidemic of plague known as the Black Death that killed off a third or more of the population of Europe. The long-term shortage of workers that followed helped bring about the end of feudalism.

Historians and microbiologists alike have searched for decades for the origins of plague. Until now, the first clear evidence of Yersinia pestis infection was the Plague of Justinian in the 6th century, which severely weakened the Byzantine Empire.

But in a new study, published on Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers report that the bacterium was infecting people as long as 5,000 years ago.

Exactly what those early outbreaks were like is impossible to know. But the authors of the new study suggest that plague epidemics in the Bronze Age may have opened the doors to waves of migrants in regions decimated by disease.

“To my mind, this leaves little doubt that this has played a major role in those population replacements,” said Eske Willerslev, a co-author of the new study and the director of the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen.

David M. Wagner, a microbial geneticist at Northern Arizona University who was not involved in the study, said that the new research should prompt other scientists to look at mysterious outbreaks in early history, such as the epidemic that devastated Athens during the Peloponnesian War. “It opens up whole new areas of research,” he said.

The new study arose from previous research by Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues. They were able to extract human DNA from101 bones found in Europe and Asia, ranging in age from about 3,000 to 5,000 years old.

As they reported in June, the genetic profiles of people during that 2,000-year period changed with surprising abruptness. About 4,500 years ago, for example, the DNA of Europe’s inhabitants suddenly took on a strong resemblance to that of the Yamnaya, a nomadic people from western Russia.

Wondering what could have triggered such a shift, Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues realized they could test one hypothesis: that epidemics had decimated some populations, allowing new groups to establish themselves.

When researchers search for ancient human genetic material in a piece of bone, they begin by retrieving all the DNA in the sample. Most of it is not human, belonging instead to bacteria and other microbes that colonize bones after death.

Once scientists have gathered all the DNA, they assemble the genetic fragments into larger pieces and try to match them to sequences already identified in earlier research. Normally they set aside microbial DNA to focus on the human material.

Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues wondered if some of the nonhuman DNA they had collected from Bronze Age remains might belong to pathogens. They decided to look for traces of Yersinia pestis, even though the earliest evidence of the infection dates to thousands of years later.

“Plague was just a long shot,” said Dr. Willerslev.

But sometimes long shots pay off. Of 101 Bronze Age individuals, the researchers found Yersinia pestis DNA in seven. Plague DNA was present in teeth recovered from sites stretching from Poland to Siberia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/science/in-ancient-dna-evidence-of-plague-much-earlier-than-previously-known.html

Anonymous said...



Cell Volume 163, Issue 3, p571–582, 22 October 2015

Early Divergent Strains of Yersinia pestis in Eurasia 5,000 Years Ago

Simon Rasmussen18, Morten Erik Allentoft18, Kasper Nielsen, Ludovic Orlando, Martin Sikora, Karl-Göran Sjögren, Anders Gorm Pedersen, Mikkel Schubert, Alex Van Dam, Christian Moliin Outzen Kapel, Henrik Bjørn Nielsen, Søren Brunak, Pavel Avetisyan, Andrey Epimakhov, Mikhail Viktorovich Khalyapin, Artak Gnuni, Aivar Kriiska, Irena Lasak, Mait Metspalu, Vyacheslav Moiseyev, Andrei Gromov, Dalia Pokutta, Lehti Saag, Liivi Varul, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén, Robert A. Foley, Marta Mirazón Lahr, Rasmus Nielsen, Kristian Kristiansen, Eske Willerslev

The bacteria Yersinia pestis is the etiological agent of plague and has caused human pandemics with millions of deaths in historic times. How and when it originated remains contentious. Here, we report the oldest direct evidence of Yersinia pestis identified by ancient DNA in human teeth from Asia and Europe dating from 2,800 to 5,000 years ago. By sequencing the genomes, we find that these ancient plague strains are basal to all known Yersinia pestis. We find the origins of the Yersinia pestis lineage to be at least two times older than previous estimates. We also identify a temporal sequence of genetic changes that lead to increased virulence and the emergence of the bubonic plague. Our results show that plague infection was endemic in the human populations of Eurasia at least 3,000 years before any historical recordings of pandemics.
http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(15)01322-7

Santoculto said...

320 million people, 170 million white europeans and any great philosopher.
250-310 thousand people, founders of western philosophy.

Jewish and globalist work are very easy, play with weaknesses of New Rome, ;)

This work is soo easy to be done that seems to be very vulnerable too.

Just ''people'' open your eyes, but it will not enough because most them are not trully wises. Peace!

(and wisdom-philosophy practice is so easy...)

Anonymous said...

cockring's explanation of secretariat appears to be the truth.

thoroughbreds have very little genetic diversity...even less than humans...and much less than some other domesticated animals...http://www.thehorse.com/articles/12925/thoroughbred-pedigrees-show-little-genetic-diversity

so secretariat can't serve as the stalking horse of hbd that i would have had him be.

Santoculto said...

http://www.amren.com/features/2015/10/new-prospects-for-eugenics/

Conservatoids are funny, many, maybe most of them are just prole-mundane-cold-minded, but they are so self-confident that overrated their own intelligence that believe religiously (of course) in ''eugenics''.

I'm favorable to ethically correct eugenics, not this market-prole-eugenics.

Jorge Mugabe have reason about morality and smart behavior, make all sense, great insight!!

Santoculto said...

https://heartiste.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/hypertardy/

What is the problem with this iranian**

Shit, hbd and their sociopaths, ;)


Idiotic ''conservatoids''(on average of course)

Santoculto said...

I luv to see iranian fuck with eastern european teenagers...

Anonymous said...

good on ya brazilian guy.

1. there are ZERO "advanced prospects" for eugenics. this is just HYPE. and steve shoe is delusional. whereras plomin, n/a, et al are merely retarded.

2. the current situation with iran is what's wrong with the world...

let's see:

1. Persia is an ancient country. the greeks fought one or more xerxeses 5 centuries before christ.

2. israel has nukes.

3. america began in 1776...is run by jews...and wants to tell iran it can't have what it and israel have.

if you were iranian and not a pansy...you'd wanna blow up america.

Anonymous said...

my parents did their peace corp in bahia, specifically ipiau.

you might tell n/a how different brazil is today.

there was a guy who carried his balls around in a wheel barrow from lymphatic filariasis.

half the volunteers came back with diseases that killed them, like chagas.

it's not like that anymore is it?

brazil has become MUCH less shitty.

america has become MUCH shittier yet americans still compare america to developing countries...as if that were the right comparison.

it may surprise n/a that the united states is the POOREST developed country...

in terms of median wealth per adult.

adjusting for race makes little difference.

still behind greece.

REALLY!

Anonymous said...

well if you count portugal, s korea, and israel as developed then les etats unis isn't the very worst.

it's a four way tie for last place.

thanks reagan.

thanks GOP.

couldn't've done it without ya.

Anonymous said...

what, inter alia, n/a seems incapable of understanding is that...

1. america and the americas were, from the beginning, a VERY VERY BAD IDEA.

2. the rational response is to LEAVE the US, if you can, for Europe or the Antipodes.

3. that the united states is a uniquely shitty and evil country. unique among all countries past and present. it is EXCEPTIONAL...exceptionally SHITTY.

Anonymous said...

since my great great grand-dad jumped off the mayflower america has been shit.

n/a believes in some weird american golden age.

it was always a lie.

america has always been shit.

and it never could have been anything better.

it's a new world country for fuck's sake.

it's totally artificial...

and gay.

Anonymous said...

here that grampa bill (bradford)?

the country you founded is shit...

except vermont is pretty cool.

richest state in the union by median household wealth...

totally white...

no inbred hick republicans like n/a.

and...

the only charterhouse in north america.

pretty cool!

Anonymous said...

i mean what kind of retarded cunt would think america was the shit?

america's not the shit in any iteration.

america IS SHIT.

AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

Anonymous said...

n/a's trying to save something which isn't, and never has been, worth saving.

what's he like?

what level of delusion?

ah...

he's like the guy who's spilt milk all over the kitchen floor, cleans it up, and pretends there's no milk smell...

or better he's like Julian the Apostate...very unlike Julian Kaye...he would do well to make the latter a hero and abandon the former...fuck 'em a leave 'em.

or that's my best after...hmmmm...close to 10 oz etoh this evening.

Anonymous said...

bonus points if n/a knows who that guy is in my picture.

but he won't.

of course.

only the greatest thinker since aristotle.

not an american...

or even an englishman.

the truth again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOZPRm5BW0Y
https://fairyprincessdiaries.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/richard-gere-and-the-dalai-lama-richard-gere-8695011-400-300.jpg

Anonymous said...

but the truth doesn't matter in les etats unis merdeux...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Is43K6lrg

and n/a is till bending over for the big fat jewish cock.

Anonymous said...

Sardinians: relatively short by design

Behind a pay wall at Nature Genetics:

We report sequencing-based whole-genome association analyses to evaluate the impact of rare and founder variants on stature in 6,307 individuals on the island of Sardinia. We identify two variants with large effects. One variant, which introduces a stop codon in the GHR gene, is relatively frequent in Sardinia (0.87% versus <0.01% elsewhere) and in the homozygous state causes Laron syndrome involving short stature. We find that this variant reduces height in heterozygotes by an average of 4.2 cm (−0.64 s.d.). The other variant, in the imprinted KCNQ1 gene (minor allele frequency (MAF) = 7.7% in Sardinia versus <1% elsewhere) reduces height by an average of 1.83 cm (−0.31 s.d.) when maternally inherited. Additionally, polygenic scores indicate that known height-decreasing alleles are at systematically higher frequencies in Sardinians than would be expected by genetic drift. The findings are consistent with selection for shorter stature in Sardinia and a suggestive human example of the proposed 'island effect' reducing the size of large mammals.


Zoledziewska et al., Height-reducing variants and selection for short stature in Sardinia, Nature Genetics 47, 1352–1356 (2015) doi:10.1038/ng.3403

Also at Nature Genetics...

We report ~17.6 million genetic variants from whole-genome sequencing of 2,120 Sardinians; 22% are absent from previous sequencing-based compilations and are enriched for predicted functional consequences. Furthermore, ~76,000 variants common in our sample (frequency >5%) are rare elsewhere (<0.5% in the 1000 Genomes Project). We assessed the impact of these variants on circulating lipid levels and five inflammatory biomarkers. We observe 14 signals, including 2 major new loci, for lipid levels and 19 signals, including 2 new loci, for inflammatory markers. The new associations would have been missed in analyses based on 1000 Genomes Project data, underlining the advantages of large-scale sequencing in this founder population.


Sidore et al., Genome sequencing elucidates Sardinian genetic architecture and augments association analyses for lipid and blood inflammatory markers, Nature Genetics 47, 1272–1281 (2015) doi:10.1038/ng.3368

http://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2015/10/sardinians-relatively-short-by-design.html

Anonymous said...

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/001526.html

Anonymous said...

sardinians are short and very long-lived...or rather centenarians are much less exceptional in sardinia than elsewhwere in italy...it's one of the blue zones.

so i'm betting franco will outlive arnold...dollars for doughnuts.

arnold "beat" franco only because arnie was so much taller...on...ly...

pumping iron is on my top ten...if there are ten movies worth watching...it would be one.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you moderate comments? Too much Southern Euro shit-posting.

Interesting blog, either way.