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Inverted Region of DNA Gives Reproductive Edge

Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2005;293:1050.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Researchers have observed what appears to be a clear example of natural selection in a human population with their discovery that inversion of a large stretch of DNA is linked to increased reproductive success (Stefánsson et al. Nat Genet. 2005;37:129-137). Their study points to the feasibility of studying the selective effects of other genetic variants and determining their deleterious and advantageous effects.

Kári Stefánsson, MD, and colleagues have discovered a genetic inversion in human chromosome 17 that confers increased reproductive success for individuals. (Photo credit: deCODE genetics)

A FLIP IN THE DNA

The newly discovered inversion, which is 900 000 nucleotides long and is located on the long arm of chromosome 17, is a flipped segment of chromosome that is oriented in an opposite direction compared with a chromosome without the inversion. Several genes are located in this region, including those encoding corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 and microtubule-associated protein tau. The effects . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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