Sequencing of 50 human exomes reveals adaptation to high altitude

Xin Yi, Yu Liang, Emilia Huerta-Sanchez, Xin Jin, Zha Xi Ping Cuo, John E Pool, Xun Xu, Hui Jiang, Nicolas Vinckenbosch, Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen, Hancheng Zheng, Tao Liu, Weiming He, Kui Li, Ruibang Luo, Xifang Nie, Honglong Wu, Meiru Zhao, Hongzhi Cao, Jing ZouYing Shan, Shuzheng Li, Qi Yang, George Asan, Peixiang Ni, Geng Tian, Junming Xu, Xiao Liu, Tao Jiang, Renhua Wu, Guangyu Zhou, Meifang Tang, Junjie Qin, Tong Wang, Shuijian Feng, Guohong Li, George Huasang, Jiangbai Luosang, Wei Wang, Fang Chen, Yading Wang, Xiaoguang Zheng, Zhuo Li, Zhuoma Bianba, Ge Yang, Xinping Wang, Shuhui Tang, Guoyi Gao, Chen Yong, Zhen Luo, Lamu Gusang, Zheng Cao, Qinghui Zhang, Weihan Ouyang, Xiaoli Ren, Huiqing Liang, Huisong Zheng, Yebo Huang, Jingxiang Li, Lars Bolund, Karsten Kristiansen, Yingrui Li, Yong Zhang, Xiuqing Zhang, Ruiqiang Li, Songgang Li, Huanming Yang, Rasmus Nielsen, Jun Wang, Jian Wang

873 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Residents of the Tibetan Plateau show heritable adaptations to extreme altitude. We sequenced 50 exornes of ethnic Tibetans, encompassing coding sequences of 92% of human genes, with an average coverage of 18x per individual. Genes showing population-specific allele frequency changes, which represent strong candidates for altitude adaptation, were identified. The strongest signal of natural selection came from endothelial Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) domain protein 1 (EPAS1), a transcription factor involved in response to hypoxia. One single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at EPASl shows a 78% frequency difference between Tibetan and Han samples, representing the fastest allele frequency change observed at any human gene to date. This SNP's association with erythrocyte abundance supports the role of EPASl in adaptation to hypoxia. Thus, a population genomic survey has revealed a functionally important locus in genetic adaptation to high altitude.

Original languageEnglish
JournalScience
Volume329
Issue number5987
Pages (from-to)75-8
Number of pages4
ISSN0036-8075
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jul 2010

Keywords

  • Acclimatization
  • Altitude
  • Asian Continental Ancestry Group
  • Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors
  • Bayes Theorem
  • China
  • Erythrocyte Count
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Exons
  • Female
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Association Studies
  • Genome, Human
  • Hemoglobins
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Oxygen
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • Selection, Genetic
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Tibet

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