Gene Discovery for Complex Traits: Lessons from Africa

Jon M McClellan; Thomas Lehner; Mary-Claire King

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.037

Gene Discovery for Complex Traits: Lessons from Africa

Cell. 2017 Oct 5;171(2):261-264. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.037.

Authors

Jon M McClellan¹, Thomas Lehner², Mary-Claire King³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
² National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
³ Department of Genome Sciences and Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 28985555
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.09.037

Abstract

The genetics of African populations reveals an otherwise "missing layer" of human variation that arose between 100,000 and 5 million years ago. Both the vast number of these ancient variants and the selective pressures they survived yield insights into genes responsible for complex traits in all populations.

MeSH terms

Africa
Animals
Biological Evolution*
Black People / genetics*
Gene-Environment Interaction
Genetic Variation
Genetics, Medical
Hominidae / genetics
Humans
Schizophrenia / epidemiology
Schizophrenia / genetics