Polygenic Adaptation has Impacted Multiple Anthropometric Traits
Citations Over Time
Abstract
Abstract Our understanding of the genetic basis of human adaptation is biased toward loci of large pheno-typic effect. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) now enable the study of genetic adaptation in polygenic phenotypes. We test for polygenic adaptation among 187 world-wide human populations using polygenic scores constructed from GWAS of 34 complex traits. We identify signals of polygenic adaptation for anthropometric traits including height, infant head circumference (IHC), hip circumference and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Analysis of ancient DNA samples indicates that a north-south cline of height within Europe and and a west-east cline across Eurasia can be traced to selection for increased height in two late Pleistocene hunter gatherer populations living in western and west-central Eurasia. Our observation that IHC and WHR follow a latitudinal cline in Western Eurasia support the role of natural selection driving Bergmann’s Rule in humans, consistent with thermoregulatory adaptation in response to latitudinal temperature variation. Author’s Note on Failure to Replicate After this preprint was posted, the UK Biobank dataset was released, providing a new and open GWAS resource. When attempting to replicate the height selection results from this preprint using GWAS data from the UK Biobank, we discovered that we could not. In subsequent analyses, we determined that both the GIANT consortium height GWAS data, as well as another dataset that was used for replication, were impacted by stratification issues that created or at a minimum substantially inflated the height selection signals reported here. The results of this second investigation, written together with additional coauthors, have now been published ( https://elifesciences.org/articles/39725 along with another paper by a separate group of authors, showing similar issues https://elifesciences.org/articles/39702 ). A preliminary investigation shows that the other non-height based results may suffer from similar issues. We stand by the theory and statistical methods reported in this paper, and the paper can be cited for these results. However, we have shown that the data on which the major empirical results were based are not sound, and so should be treated with caution until replicated.
Related Papers
- → LOCAL ADAPTATION MAINTAINS CLINAL VARIATION IN MELANIN-BASED COLORATION OF EUROPEAN BARN OWLS (TYTO ALBA)(2010)128 cited
- → Local adaptation along an environmental cline in a species with an inversion polymorphism(2017)38 cited
- → Rapid adaptation (or not) in restored plant populations(2020)15 cited
- → Fitness surfaces and local thermal adaptation in Drosophila along a latitudinal gradient(2024)6 cited
- → Digest: Parallel rather than unique local adaptation along a steep elevation gradient*(2021)