Scientists have discovered a connection between a protein's role in complex neurological diseases and its evolution in human history.

Those opposite directions, known as yin and yang, are still strongly evident across different populations of people around the world today. Malfunction of the gephyrin protein has been associated with epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and other neurological diseases.
The research team used big data from the "International HapMap Project", a public resource of genetic data from populations worldwide designed to help researchers find genes associated with human disease, as well as from the "1000 Genomes" project, another public data source of sequenced human genomes.
In total, they looked at the genetic data from 3,438 individuals, said the study that appeared in the journal Nature Communications. When they analysed the data, they made an interesting discovery in a sequence of markers called a haplotype, enveloping the gephyrin gene.
Using the data from the HapMap Project, they looked at the gephyrin region in several populations of people, including European, East and South Asian and African heritage, and found variations in the haplotype frequencies of each of these populations.
Those from African origin generally have more yang haplotypes, while those of European origin have more yin haplotypes. Those of Asian descent have nearly equal numbers of yin and yang haplotypes.
Advertisements
"Different groups of people who get a disease may be affected by different groups of variations. We are taking a combinatorial approach, looking at combinations of markers together, and we are able to see the patterns," Climer concluded.
Advertisements