Polymorphism for a 1.6-Mb deletion of the human Y chromosome persists through balance between recurrent mutation and haploid selection |
| |
Authors: | Repping Sjoerd Skaletsky Helen Brown Laura van Daalen Saskia K M Korver Cindy M Pyntikova Tatyana Kuroda-Kawaguchi Tomoko de Vries Jan W A Oates Robert D Silber Sherman van der Veen Fulco Page David C Rozen Steve |
| |
Institution: | Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Whitehead Institute and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. |
| |
Abstract: | Many human Y-chromosomal deletions are thought to severely impair reproductive fitness, which precludes their transmission to the next generation and thus ensures their rarity in the population. Here we report a 1.6-Mb deletion that persists over generations and is sufficiently common to be considered a polymorphism. We hypothesized that this deletion might affect spermatogenesis because it removes almost half of the Y chromosome's AZFc region, a gene-rich segment that is critical for sperm production. An association study established that this deletion, called gr/gr, is a significant risk factor for spermatogenic failure. The gr/gr deletion has far lower penetrance with respect to spermatogenic failure than previously characterized Y-chromosomal deletions; it is often transmitted from father to son. By studying the distribution of gr/gr-deleted chromosomes across the branches of the Y chromosome's genealogical tree, we determined that this deletion arose independently at least 14 times in human history. We suggest that the existence of this deletion as a polymorphism reflects a balance between haploid selection, which culls gr/gr-deleted Y chromosomes from the population, and homologous recombination, which continues to generate new gr/gr deletions. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|