Evidence of directional and stabilizing selection in contemporary humans

Modern molecular genetic datasets, primarily collected to study the biology of human health and disease, can be used to directly measure the action of natural selection and reveal important features of contemporary human evolution. Here we leverage the UK Biobank data to test for the presence of lin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2018-01, Vol.115 (1), p.151-156
Main Authors: Sanjak, Jaleal S., Sidorenko, Julia, Robinson, Matthew R., Thornton, Kevin R., Visscher, Peter M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
Evolution
Female
Genetics
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Genetic
Molecules
Natural selection
Phenotype
Selection, Genetic
United Kingdom
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Summary:Modern molecular genetic datasets, primarily collected to study the biology of human health and disease, can be used to directly measure the action of natural selection and reveal important features of contemporary human evolution. Here we leverage the UK Biobank data to test for the presence of linear and nonlinear natural selection in a contemporary population of the United Kingdom. We obtain phenotypic and genetic evidence consistent with the action of linear/directional selection. Phenotypic evidence suggests that stabilizing selection, which acts to reduce variance in the population without necessarily modifying the population mean, is widespread and relatively weak in comparison with estimates from other species.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1707227114