Comparison of human genetic and sequence-based physical maps

Recombination is the exchange of information between two homologous chromosomes during meiosis. The rate of recombination per nucleotide, which profoundly affects the evolution of chromosomal segments, is calculated by comparing genetic and physical maps. Human physical maps have been constructed using cytogenetics, overlapping DNA clones and radiation hybrids; but the ultimate and by far the most accurate physical map is the actual nucleotide sequence. The completion of the draft human genomic sequence provides us with the best opportunity yet to compare the genetic and physical maps. Here we describe our estimates of female, male and sex-average recombination rates for about 60% of the genome. Recombination rates varied greatly along each chromosome, from 0 to at least 9 centiMorgans per megabase (cM Mb(-1)). Among several sequence and marker parameters tested, only relative marker position along the metacentric chromosomes in males correlated strongly with recombination rate. We identified several chromosomal regions up to 6 Mb in length with particularly low (deserts) or high (jungles) recombination rates. Linkage disequilibrium was much more common and extended for greater distances in the deserts than in the jungles.     

Levels of naturally occurring DNA polymorphism correlate with recombination rates in D. melanogaster.

Two genomic regions with unusually low recombination rates in Drosophila melanogaster have normal levels of divergence but greatly reduced nucleotide diversity, apparently resulting from the fixation of advantageous mutations and the associated hitch-hiking effect. Here we show that for 20 gene regions from across the genome, the amount of nucleotide diversity in natural populations of D. melanogaster is positively correlated with the regional rate of recombination. This cannot be explained by variation in mutation rates and/or functional constraint, because we observe no correlation between recombination rates and DNA sequence divergence between D. melanogaster and its sibling species, D. simulans. We suggest that the correlation may result from genetic hitch-hiking associated with the fixation of advantageous mutants. Hitch-hiking thus seems to occur over a large fraction of the Drosophila genome and may constitute a major constraint on levels of genetic variation in nature.     

ReDB: A meiotic homologous recombination rate database

Meiotic recombination occurs preferentially at certain regions in the genome referred to as hot spots which are important for generating genetic diversity and proper segregation of chromosomes during meiosis. Although observations concerning individual hotspots have given clues as to the mechanism of recombination initiation, the nature and causes of recombination rate variation in the genome are still little known. A rational solution is to estimate and rank recombination rates along the genome. Therefore, it is a high demand for a database that deposits and integrates those data to provide a systematical repository of genome-wide recombination rates. Homologous recombination hotspots database is a web-based database of meiotic recombination rates, which comprises enormous data and information of human, mouse, rat, D. melanogaster, C. elegans and yeast. Users can query the database in several alternative ways. The database stores various details for every sequence, such as chromosome number, hyperlinks to the respective reference, and the sequence in FASTA format.     

High-resolution mapping of meiotic crossovers and non-crossovers in yeast

Meiotic recombination has a central role in the evolution of sexually reproducing organisms. The two recombination outcomes, crossover and non-crossover, increase genetic diversity, but have the potential to homogenize alleles by gene conversion. Whereas crossover rates vary considerably across the genome, non-crossovers and gene conversions have only been identified in a handful of loci. To examine recombination genome wide and at high spatial resolution, we generated maps of crossovers, crossover-associated gene conversion and non-crossover gene conversion using dense genetic marker data collected from all four products of fifty-six yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) meioses. Our maps reveal differences in the distributions of crossovers and non-crossovers, showing more regions where either crossovers or non-crossovers are favoured than expected by chance. Furthermore, we detect evidence for interference between crossovers and non-crossovers, a phenomenon previously only known to occur between crossovers. Up to 1% of the genome of each meiotic product is subject to gene conversion in a single meiosis, with detectable bias towards GC nucleotides. To our knowledge the maps represent the first high-resolution, genome-wide characterization of the multiple outcomes of recombination in any organism. In addition, because non-crossover hotspots create holes of reduced linkage within haplotype blocks, our results stress the need to incorporate non-crossovers into genetic linkage analysis.     

Reduced adaptation of a non-recombining neo-Y chromosome

Sex chromosomes are generally believed to have descended from a pair of homologous autosomes. Suppression of recombination between the ancestral sex chromosomes led to the genetic degeneration of the Y chromosome. In response, the X chromosome may become dosage-compensated. Most proposed mechanisms for the degeneration of Y chromosomes involve the rapid fixation of deleterious mutations on the Y. Alternatively, Y-chromosome degeneration might be a response to a slower rate of adaptive evolution, caused by its lack of recombination. Here we report patterns of DNA polymorphism and divergence at four genes located on the neo-sex chromosomes of Drosophila miranda. We show that a higher rate of protein sequence evolution of the neo-X-linked copy of Cyclin B relative to the neo-Y copy is driven by positive selection, which is consistent with the adaptive hypothesis for the evolution of the Y chromosome. In contrast, the neo-Y-linked copies of even-skipped and roundabout show an elevated rate of protein evolution relative to their neo-X homologues, probably reflecting the reduced effectiveness of selection against deleterious mutations in a non-recombining genome. Our results provide evidence for the importance of sexual recombination for increasing and maintaining the level of adaptation of a population.     

水稻遗传多样性及其农艺性状与SSR标记的关联分析

分析水稻材料的遗传多样性,寻找与农艺性状相关联的分子标记,为水稻杂交组合的配置及分子标记辅助育种提供依据.利用60对分布于水稻12条染色体组的SSR标记对190份水稻材料进行遗传多样性分析与群体遗传结构分析,并采用Tassel3.0的GLM和MLM进行标记与农艺性状的关联分析.结果显示,190份水稻材料的遗传相似系数(GS)变异范围为0.62～0.97,平均值为0.86.按群体遗传结构可将供试材料分为3个亚群.以GLM分析,发现8个与穗长、一次枝梗数、一次枝梗穗粒数、二次枝梗数、二次枝梗穗粒数、总穗粒数和饱满穗粒数相关联的标记,各标记对表型变异的解释率为0.0648;以MLM分析显示,8个标记对表型变异的解释率在0.0378～0.0648.本研究获得的这8个农艺性状相关的分子标记可以作为辅助育种培育高产水稻品种的分子标记.     

环境因子对大石鸡种群遗传多样性的影响

分别以mtDNA的非编码基因D-loop和编码基因Cytb为分子标记,研究了大石鸡分布区内12个种群遗传多样性与环境因子之间的相关性.173个样本的D-loop部分序列(1127 bp)中共发现了34个多态位点,定义了44种单倍型;230个样本的Cytb部分序列(807 bp)中共发现了13个多态位点,定义了14种单倍型.基于D-loop和Cytb的单倍型多样性和核苷酸多样性与样本量之间均无显著相关性.所有的种群遗传多样性与环境因子相关性检验中,基于D-loop的核苷酸多样性与降水量的负相关、基于Cytb的单倍型多样性与纬度和相对湿度变异系数的负相关以及基于Cytb的核苷酸多样性与相对湿度变异系数的负相关达到了显著水平,说明纬度、降水和相对湿度变异系数是影响大石鸡遗传多样性的主导因子,低纬度、干旱以及气候稳定的环境下,大石鸡的遗传多样性更高.     

Direct estimation of per nucleotide and genomic deleterious mutation rates in Drosophila

Spontaneous mutations are the source of genetic variation required for evolutionary change, and are therefore important for many aspects of evolutionary biology. For example, the divergence between taxa at neutrally evolving sites in the genome is proportional to the per nucleotide mutation rate, u (ref. 1), and this can be used to date speciation events by assuming a molecular clock. The overall rate of occurrence of deleterious mutations in the genome each generation (U) appears in theories of nucleotide divergence and polymorphism, the evolution of sex and recombination, and the evolutionary consequences of inbreeding. However, estimates of U based on changes in allozymes or DNA sequences and fitness traits are discordant. Here we directly estimate u in Drosophila melanogaster by scanning 20 million bases of DNA from three sets of mutation accumulation lines by using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography. From 37 mutation events that we detected, we obtained a mean estimate for u of 8.4 x 10(-9) per generation. Moreover, we detected significant heterogeneity in u among the three mutation-accumulation-line genotypes. By multiplying u by an estimate of the fraction of mutations that are deleterious in natural populations of Drosophila, we estimate that U is 1.2 per diploid genome. This high rate suggests that selection against deleterious mutations may have a key role in explaining patterns of genetic variation in the genome, and help to maintain recombination and sexual reproduction.     

Fine-scale recombination rate differences between sexes, populations and individuals

Meiotic recombinations contribute to genetic diversity by yielding new combinations of alleles. Recently, high-resolution recombination maps were inferred from high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data using linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns that capture historical recombination events. The use of these maps has been demonstrated by the identification of recombination hotspots and associated motifs, and the discovery that the PRDM9 gene affects the proportion of recombinations occurring at hotspots. However, these maps provide no information about individual or sex differences. Moreover, locus-specific demographic factors like natural selection can bias LD-based estimates of recombination rate. Existing genetic maps based on family data avoid these shortcomings, but their resolution is limited by relatively few meioses and a low density of markers. Here we used genome-wide SNP data from 15,257 parent-offspring pairs to construct the first recombination maps based on directly observed recombinations with a resolution that is effective down to 10 kilobases (kb). Comparing male and female maps reveals that about 15% of hotspots in one sex are specific to that sex. Although male recombinations result in more shuffling of exons within genes, female recombinations generate more new combinations of nearby genes. We discover novel associations between recombination characteristics of individuals and variants in the PRDM9 gene and we identify new recombination hotspots. Comparisons of our maps with two LD-based maps inferred from data of HapMap populations of Utah residents with ancestry from northern and western Europe (CEU) and Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria (YRI) reveal population differences previously masked by noise and map differences at regions previously described as targets of natural selection.     

A haplotype map of the human genome

Inherited genetic variation has a critical but as yet largely uncharacterized role in human disease. Here we report a public database of common variation in the human genome: more than one million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for which accurate and complete genotypes have been obtained in 269 DNA samples from four populations, including ten 500-kilobase regions in which essentially all information about common DNA variation has been extracted. These data document the generality of recombination hotspots, a block-like structure of linkage disequilibrium and low haplotype diversity, leading to substantial correlations of SNPs with many of their neighbours. We show how the HapMap resource can guide the design and analysis of genetic association studies, shed light on structural variation and recombination, and identify loci that may have been subject to natural selection during human evolution.     

福建近海蓝圆鲹群体遗传结构分析

测定了福建近海蓝圆鲹(Decapterus maruadsi Temminck&Schlegel)2个群体共60尾个体的线粒体DNA(mtDNA)控制区序列,探讨了闽东和闽南群体遗传结构和遗传多样性.结果显示:获得长度为834～838 bp的控制区部分序列,在所测的60个样本中,共检测到23个变异位点,定义了28个单倍型,平均单倍型多样性(h)为0.948±0.0145,核苷酸多样性(π)为0.004 99±0.002 79,核苷酸差异数(K)为4.173±2.104,提示了福建近海蓝圆鲹具有较高的遗传多样性水平.构建的单倍型邻接关系树没有明显的以地理群体为单位的家系式分支出现,单倍型网络图也未显示出单倍型和地理位置的对应关系.Tajima's D和Fu's Fs中性检验及核苷酸不配对分析暗示了蓝圆鲹闽南群体在63 000年前可能发生过扩张事件,而闽东群体符合中性理论进化,2个群体不同的历史动态可能是由于小冰河期海区间的气候差异和闽东群体的过度利用所致.分子方差分析(AMOVA)表明,遗传变异全部存在于群体内,2个群体间具有紧密的基因流和较低的遗传分化,群体问和群体内的Kimura双参数遗传距离均较小.可知:福建近海蓝圆鲹遗传多样性较高,闽东和闽南群体的遗传结构相似,不存在显著的遗传分化.因此,建议将闽南渔场和闽东渔场作为一个种质资源评估、管理和保护单元.     

基于MHCⅡ类B基因的凹耳臭蛙(Odorrana tormota)种群遗传分化模式

利用II类MHC基因单基因座位Odto-A作为分子标记,对皖南山区凹耳臭蛙6个种群的遗传多样性和遗传分化进行研究.结果显示,皖南凹耳臭蛙总的基因多样性为0.812,核苷酸多样性为0.018.局域种群单倍型多样性变化范围为0.531-0.864,香溪种群单倍型多样性最高,最低的是漳河种群.与线粒体cyt b基因所揭示的单倍型多样性差别不大,但B基因的核苷酸多样性较之线粒体cyt b基因的高达一个数量级.暗示MHC基因丰富的核苷酸多态性可能与其病原体抗性多样性密切相关.分子变异分析结果显示,皖南山区凹耳臭蛙种群MHC II类B基因遗传变异主要来源于种群内,种群间发生了显著的遗传分化(Fst=0.05644,P=0.00391).成对种群间的遗传分化分析结果显示,直线距离最近的浮溪和香溪种群间也发生了显著的遗传分化,暗示这两个种群经历了不同的选择压力.受平衡选择的作用,MHC基因与基于中性分子标记所揭示的遗传格局不同,基于MHC基因的种群遗传分化与水系和直线地理距离均没有明显的相关性,而与种群所经历的选择压力密切相关.结果表明皖南凹耳臭蛙不同局域种群所经历的环境病原体的选择压力存在时空变异.     

The limits of selection during maize domestication

The domestication of all major crop plants occurred during a brief period in human history about 10,000 years ago. During this time, ancient agriculturalists selected seed of preferred forms and culled out seed of undesirable types to produce each subsequent generation. Consequently, favoured alleles at genes controlling traits of interest increased in frequency, ultimately reaching fixation. When selection is strong, domestication has the potential to drastically reduce genetic diversity in a crop. To understand the impact of selection during maize domestication, we examined nucleotide polymorphism in teosinte branched1, a gene involved in maize evolution. Here we show that the effects of selection were limited to the gene's regulatory region and cannot be detected in the protein-coding region. Although selection was apparently strong, high rates of recombination and a prolonged domestication period probably limited its effects. Our results help to explain why maize is such a variable crop. They also suggest that maize domestication required hundreds of years, and confirm previous evidence that maize was domesticated from Balsas teosinte of southwestern Mexico.     

长江上游鲢群体遗传多样性和遗传分化

为了解三峡大坝、向家坝等水电工程建设后长江上游鲢群体的遗传多样性和遗传分化，利用线粒体细胞色素b（Cyt b）基因分析了长江上游向家坝库区（邵女坪）、三峡库区干流（巴南、丰都、万州、太平溪）及支流（箭滩河、嘉陵江、小江）等8个鲢群体的遗传多样性、历史动态及群体之间的遗传分化．结果表明:长江上游鲢群体的遗传多样性较高，单倍型多样性为0.770~0.876，核苷酸多样性为0.687%~1.967%；8个群体的错配分析图都呈双峰分布，中性检验Tajima’s D和Fu’s Fs值均为正值或统计上不显著的负值，表明长江上游鲢群体在历史上较为稳定；分子方差变异分析（AMOVA）显示，长江上游鲢群体的遗传变异主要来自群体内部（95.87%），仅有4.13%的变异来自群体之间；群体之间的遗传分化指数F_ST显示，箭滩河群体与太平溪、小江群体之间存在显著的遗传分化，其他群体之间遗传分化不显著；Mantel检验显示，群体之间的遗传分化程度与地理距离远近无相关性；单倍型网络图显示，长江上游鲢群体没有形成明显的系统地理格局．建议加强长江上游鲢遗传资源保护，将产生分化的群体作为不同的管理单元进行保护．      

赤眼鳟线粒体D-loop和Cyt b基因序列的对比分析

 研究了长江和珠江野生赤眼鳟Squaliobarbus curriculus共4个群体24个个体的线粒体控制区（D-loop）和细胞色素b（Cyt b）基因序列,通过PCR扩增与测序,分别获得了长度为598 bp和752 bp的D-loop和Cyt b基因片段。分析表明,D-loop序列共定义了18个单倍型,存在34个简约信息位点,67个多态性位点,发生转换40次,颠换15次,插入/缺失14次。A、T、C、G平均含量分别为33.7%、35.1%、17.5%、13.7%。Cyt b序列共定义了18个单倍型,存在68个简约信息位点,72个多态性位点,发生转换60次,颠换15次,无插入/缺失位点。A、T、C、G平均含量分别为29.3%、26.4%、29.8%、14.5%。Cyt b除简约信息位点百分比大于D-loop外,多态位点百分比和单突变位点百分比均小于D-loop,说明D-loop具有较快的进化速率。D-loop序列的单倍型多样性(H)、平均核苷酸差异数(K)、核苷酸多样性(π)分别0.963 8、16.543 5和0.028 4,Cyt b的H、K和π分别为0.971 0、31.855 1和0.042 6,显示赤眼鳟具有较高的遗传多样性水平,且遗传变异主要存在于群体间。分析群体间的遗传距离和F_ST值,D-loop和Cyt b都一致表明：长江和珠江水系间存在明显的遗传分化,系统树和分子变异等级分析(AMOVA)也支持这一观点。同一水系群体间的遗传差异较小,Cyt b则更小;不同水系群体间的遗传差异较大,Cyt b则更大。故,Cyt b呈现出“小则越小,大则越大”的态势。分析其原因,可能与D-loop和Cyt b进化速率密切相关。     

Interference among deleterious mutations favours sex and recombination in finite populations

Sex and recombination are widespread, but explaining these phenomena has been one of the most difficult problems in evolutionary biology. Recombination is advantageous when different individuals in a population carry different advantageous alleles. By bringing together advantageous alleles onto the same chromosome, recombination speeds up the process of adaptation and opposes the fixation of harmful mutations by means of Muller's ratchet. Nevertheless, adaptive substitutions favour sex and recombination only if the rate of adaptive mutation is high, and Muller's ratchet operates only in small or asexual populations. Here, by tracking the fate of modifier alleles that alter the frequency of sex and recombination, we show that background selection against deleterious mutant alleles provides a stochastic advantage to sex and recombination that increases with population size. The advantage arises because, with low levels of recombination, selection at other loci severely reduces the effective population size and genetic variance in fitness at a focal locus (the Hill-Robertson effect), making a population less able to respond to selection and to rid itself of deleterious mutations. Sex and recombination reveal the hidden genetic variance in fitness by combining chromosomes of intermediate fitness to create chromosomes that are relatively free of (or are loaded with) deleterious mutations. This increase in genetic variance within finite populations improves the response to selection and generates a substantial advantage to sex and recombination that is fairly insensitive to the form of epistatic interactions between deleterious alleles. The mechanism supported by our results offers a robust and broadly applicable explanation for the evolutionary advantage of recombination and can explain the spread of costly sex.     

A second generation human haplotype map of over 3.1 million SNPs

We describe the Phase II HapMap, which characterizes over 3.1 million human single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped in 270 individuals from four geographically diverse populations and includes 25-35% of common SNP variation in the populations surveyed. The map is estimated to capture untyped common variation with an average maximum r2 of between 0.9 and 0.96 depending on population. We demonstrate that the current generation of commercial genome-wide genotyping products captures common Phase II SNPs with an average maximum r2 of up to 0.8 in African and up to 0.95 in non-African populations, and that potential gains in power in association studies can be obtained through imputation. These data also reveal novel aspects of the structure of linkage disequilibrium. We show that 10-30% of pairs of individuals within a population share at least one region of extended genetic identity arising from recent ancestry and that up to 1% of all common variants are untaggable, primarily because they lie within recombination hotspots. We show that recombination rates vary systematically around genes and between genes of different function. Finally, we demonstrate increased differentiation at non-synonymous, compared to synonymous, SNPs, resulting from systematic differences in the strength or efficacy of natural selection between populations.     

Inversion in the H-2 complex of t-haplotypes in mice

Mouse t-haplotypes demonstrate strong linkage disequilibrium between t-lethal genes and specific H-2 types, presumably a result of recombination suppression between t and normal chromosomes. The observation of free recombination occurring between two complementary t-haplotypes suggested a chromosomal mismatch between t and normal chromosomes. Recent data showing the H-2 complex to be misplaced relative to two other markers, T and tf, in t-haplotypes suggested that chromosomal rearrangement in t-haplotypes might be the basis for their 'mismatch' with the normal chromosome. Here, to analyse the molecular nature of the rearrangement, we have cloned a polymorphic H-2 class I restriction fragment, which had previously been shown to map centromeric to the serologically defined H-2 complex in t-haplotypes. Genetic mapping studies show that this cloned t-DNA is homologous to the H-2 D region of wild-type chromosomes, and that the E alpha Ia gene maps telomeric to this DNA fragment in t-haplotypes, in contrast to its orientation in wild-type chromosomes. These results give molecular evidence for an inversion of H-2 in t-haplotypes, which may be at least partially responsible for recombination suppression and thus for linkage disequilibrium.     

xnd-1 regulates the global recombination landscape in Caenorhabditis elegans

Meiotic crossover (CO) recombination establishes physical linkages between homologous chromosomes that are required for their proper segregation into developing gametes, and promotes genetic diversity by shuffling genetic material between parental chromosomes. COs require the formation of double strand breaks (DSBs) to create the substrate for strand exchange. DSBs occur in small intervals called hotspots and significant variation in hotspot usage exists between and among individuals. This variation is thought to reflect differences in sequence identity and chromatin structure, DNA topology and/ or chromosome domain organization. Chromosomes show different frequencies of nondisjunction (NDJ), reflecting inherent differences in meiotic crossover control, yet the underlying basis of these differences remains elusive. Here we show that a novel chromatin factor, X non-disjunction factor 1 (xnd-1), is responsible for the global distribution of COs in C. elegans. xnd-1 is also required for formation of double-strand breaks (DSBs) on the X, but surprisingly XND-1 protein is autosomally enriched. We show that xnd-1 functions independently of genes required for X chromosome-specific gene silencing, revealing a novel pathway that distinguishes the X from autosomes in the germ line, and further show that xnd-1 exerts its effects on COs, at least in part, by modulating levels of H2A lysine 5 acetylation.