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Background: The endoplasmic reticulum enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase catalyzes the common terminal reaction in the gluconeogenic/glycogenolytic pathways and plays a central role in glucose homeostasis. In most mammals, different G6PC subunits are encoded by three paralogous genes (G6PC, G6PC2, and G6PC3). Mutations in G6PC and G6PC3 are responsible for human mendelian diseases, whereas variants in G6PC2 are associated with fasting glucose (FG) levels., Results: We analyzed the evolutionary history of G6Pase genes. Results indicated that the three paralogs originated during early vertebrate evolution and that negative selection was the major force shaping diversity at these genes in mammals. Nonetheless, site-wise estimation of evolutionary rates at corresponding sites revealed weak correlations, suggesting that mammalian G6Pases have evolved different structural features over time. We also detected pervasive positive selection at mammalian G6PC2. Most selected residues localize in the C-terminal protein region, where several human variants associated with FG levels also map. This region was re-sequenced in ~560 subjects from Saudi Arabia, 185 of whom suffering from type 2 diabetes (T2D). The frequency of rare missense and nonsense variants was not significantly different in T2D and controls. Association analysis with two common missense variants (V219L and S342C) revealed a weak but significant association for both SNPs when analyses were conditioned on rs560887, previously identified in a GWAS for FG. Two haplotypes were significantly associated with T2D with an opposite effect direction., Conclusions: We detected pervasive positive selection at mammalian G6PC2 genes and we suggest that distinct haplotypes at the G6PC2 locus modulate susceptibility to T2D.

Background: The genetic bases of natural resistance to HIV-1 infection remain largely unknown. Recently, two genome-wide association studies suggested a role for variants within or in the vicinity of the CYP7B1 gene in modulating HIV susceptibility. CYP7B1 is an appealing candidate for this due to its contribution to antiviral immune responses. We analyzed the frequency of two previously described CYP7B1 variants (rs6996198 and rs10808739) in three independent cohorts of HIV-1 infected subjects and HIV-1 exposed seronegative individuals (HESN)., Findings: rs6996198 and rs10808739 were genotyped in three case/control cohorts of sexually-exposed HESN and HIV-1-infected individuals from Italy, Peru and Colombia. Comparison of the allele and genotype frequencies of the two SNPs under different models showed that the only significant difference was seen for rs6996198 in the Peruvian sample (nominal p = 0.048, dominant model). For this variant, a random-effect meta-analysis yielded non-significant results (dominant model, p = 0.78) and revealed substantial heterogeneity among cohorts. No significant effect of the rs10808739 allelic status on HIV-1 infection susceptibility (additive model, p = 0.30) emerged from the meta-analysis., Conclusions: Although our study had limited power to detect association due to the small sample size, comparisons among the three cohorts revealed very similar allelic and genotypic frequencies in HESN and HIV-1 positive subjects. Overall, these data indicate that the two GWAS-defined variants in the CYP7B1 region do not strongly influence HIV-1 infection susceptibility.

Background: Host genetic factors are thought to modulated the severity of disease caused by infection with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus (H1N1pdm09). The human CCR5 gene encodes a cytokine receptor important for cell-mediated immune response against H1N1pdm09. A 32-bp polymorphic deletion in the coding sequence of CCR5, the so-called CCR5Δ32 allele, segregates in populations of European ancestry with a frequency of 8-15%. A high proportion of CCR5Δ32 heterozygotes was reported in a sample of white Canadian critically-ill H1N1pdm09 infected subjects, suggesting an association with disease severity., Methods: We recruited 29 H1N1pdm09 infected subjects from Southern Europe (mostly Italians) with a wide clinical spectrum of disease symptoms; the sample included 7 subjects who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The CCR5Δ32 variant was genotyped in all subjects., Results: The CCR5Δ32 allele was found in one single subject, who developed a very mild form and was not hospitalized., Conclusions: The CCR5Δ32 allele was not found to be associated with the risk of H1N1pdm09 infection or with a severe disease course.

Background: The NPC1 gene encodes a protein involved in intracellular lipid trafficking; its second endosomal loop (loop 2) is a receptor for filoviruses. A polymorphism (His215Arg) in NPC1 was associated with obesity in Europeans. Adaptations to diet and pathogens represented powerful selective forces; thus, we analyzed the evolutionary history of the gene and exploited this information for the identification of variants/residues of functional importance in human disease., Methods: We performed phylogenetic analysis, population genetic tests, and genotype-phenotype analysis in a population from Saudi Arabia., Results: Maximum-likelihood ratio tests indicated the action of positive selection on loop 2 and identified three residues as selection targets; these were confirmed by an independent random effects likelihood (REL) analysis. No selection signature was detected in present-day human populations, but analysis of nonsynonymous polymorphisms showed that a variant (Ile642Met, rs1788799) in the sterol sensing domain affects a highly conserved position. This variant and the previously described His215Arg polymorphism were tested for association with obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a cohort from Saudi Arabia. Whereas no association with obesity was detected, 642Met allele was found to predispose to T2D. A significant interaction was noted with sex (P = 0.041), and stratification on the basis of gender indicated that the association is driven by men (P = 0.0021, OR = 1.5). Notably, two NPC1 haplotypes were also associated with T2D in men (rs1805081-rs1788799, His-Met: P = 0.0012, OR = 1.54; His-Ile: P = 0.0004, OR = 0.63)., Conclusions: Our data indicate a sex-specific effect of NPC1 variants on T2D risk and describe putative binding sites for filoviruses entry.

Background: Several susceptibility genetic variants for autoimmune diseases have been identified. A subset of these polymorphisms displays an opposite risk profile in different autoimmune conditions. This observation open interesting questions on the evolutionary forces shaping the frequency of these alleles in human populations.We aimed at testing the hypothesis whereby balancing selection has shaped the frequency of opposite risk alleles., Results: Since balancing selection signatures are expected to extend over short genomic portions, we focused our analyses on 11 regions carrying putative functional polymorphisms that may represent the disease variants (and the selection targets). No exceptional nucleotide diversity was observed for ZSCAN23, HLA-DMB, VARS2, PTPN22, BAT3, C6orf47, and IL10; summary statistics were consistent with evolutionary neutrality for these gene regions. Conversely, CDSN/PSORS1C1, TRIM10/TRIM40, BTNL2, and TAP2 showed extremely high nucleotide diversity and most tests rejected neutrality, suggesting the action of balancing selection. For TAP2 and BTNL2 these signatures are not secondary to linkage disequilibrium with HLA class II genes. Nonetheless, with the exception of variants in TRIM40 and CDSN, our data suggest that opposite risk SNPs are not selection targets but rather have accumulated as neutral variants., Conclusion: Data herein indicate that balancing selection is common within the extended MHC region and involves several non-HLA loci. Yet, the evolutionary history of most SNPs with an opposite effect for autoimmune diseases is consistent with evolutionary neutrality. We suggest that variants with an opposite effect on autoimmune diseases should not be considered a distinct class of disease alleles from the evolutionary perspective and, in a few cases, the opposite effect on distinct diseases may derive from complex haplotype structures in regions with high genetic diversity.

Background: More than 2 billion individuals worldwide suffer from helminth infections. The highest parasite burdens occur in children and helminth infection during pregnancy is a risk factor for preterm delivery and reduced birth weight. Therefore, helminth infections can be regarded as a strong selective pressure., Results: Here we propose that candidate susceptibility genes for parasitic worm infections can be identified by searching for SNPs that display a strong correlation with the diversity of helminth species/genera transmitted in different geographic areas. By a genome-wide search we identified 3478 variants that correlate with helminth diversity. These SNPs map to 810 distinct human genes including loci involved in regulatory T cell function and in macrophage activation, as well as leukocyte integrins and co-inhibitory molecules. Analysis of functional relationships among these genes identified complex interaction networks centred around Th2 cytokines. Finally, several genes carrying candidate targets for helminth-driven selective pressure also harbour susceptibility alleles for asthma/allergy or are involved in airway hyper-responsiveness, therefore expanding the known parallelism between these conditions and parasitic infections., Conclusions: Our data provide a landscape of human genes that modulate susceptibility to helminths and indicate parasitic worms as one of the major selective forces in humans.

Background: The vasopressin receptor type 1b (AVPR1B) is mainly expressed by pituitary corticotropes and it mediates the stimulatory effects of AVP on ACTH release; common AVPR1B haplotypes have been involved in mood and anxiety disorders in humans, while rodents lacking a functional receptor gene display behavioral defects and altered stress responses., Results: Here we have analyzed the two exons of the gene and the data we present suggest that AVPR1B has been subjected to natural selection in humans. In particular, analysis of exon 2 strongly suggests the action of balancing selection in African populations and Europeans: the region displays high nucleotide diversity, an excess of intermediate-frequency alleles, a higher level of within-species diversity compared to interspecific divergence and a genealogy with common haplotypes separated by deep branches. This relatively unambiguous situation coexists with unusual features across exon 1, raising the possibility that a nonsynonymous variant (Gly191Arg) in this region has been subjected to directional selection., Conclusion: Although the underlying selective pressure(s) remains to be identified, we consider this to be among the first documented examples of a gene involved in mood disorders and subjected to natural selection in humans; this observation might add support to the long-debated idea that depression/low mood might have played an adaptive role during human evolution.

Background: Mammalian genomes consist of regions differing in GC content, referred to as isochores or GC-content domains. The scientific debate is still open as to whether such compositional heterogeneity is a selected or neutral trait., Results: Here we analyze SNP allele frequencies, retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms (RIPs), as well as fixed substitutions accumulated in the human lineage since its divergence from chimpanzee to indicate that biased gene conversion (BGC) has been playing a role in within-genome GC content variation. Yet, a distinct contribution to GC content evolution is accounted for by a selective process. Accordingly, we searched for independent evidences that GC content distribution does not conform to neutral expectations. Indeed, after correcting for possible biases, we show that intron GC content and size display isochore-specific correlations., Conclusion: We consider that the more parsimonious explanation for our results is that GC content is subjected to the action of both weak selection and BGC in the human genome with features such as nucleosome positioning or chromatin conformation possibly representing the final target of selective processes. This view might reconcile previous contrasting findings and add some theoretical background to recent evidences suggesting that GC content domains display different behaviors with respect to highly regulated biological processes such as developmentally-stage related gene expression and programmed replication timing during neural stem cell differentiation.