Heterozygote Advantage Probably Maintains Rhesus Factor Blood Group Polymorphism: Ecological Regression Study
Heterozygote Advantage Probably Maintains Rhesus Factor Blood Group Polymorphism: Ecological Regression Study
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0147955
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发表时间：
2016-01-26
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Flegr, Jaroslav
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Flegr, Jaroslav
恒河猴因子多态性自1939年被发现以来一直是一个进化之谜。携带罕见等位基因的人应该通过选择淘汰恒河猴阴性母亲所生的恒河猴阳性孩子。在这里，我使用生态回归研究来检验猕猴因子多态性是由杂合子优势稳定的假设。这项研究是在65个国家进行的，这些国家的RhD表型频率和特定疾病负担数据是可用的。我用五个潜在的混淆变量进行了多变量协方差分析：GDP、纬度（离赤道的距离）、湿度、人均医疗保健支出和吸烟者的频率。结果表明，与许多疾病相关的负担与一个国家特定恒河猴基因型的频率相关，而恒河猴阴性纯合子和阳性杂合子的频率几乎总是相反的关系方向。在种群水平上，恒河阴性相关的负担可以通过杂合子优势来补偿，但对于恒河阴性受试者来说，这种负担代表着一个严重的问题。
Rhesus factor polymorphism has been an evolutionary enigma since its discovery in 1939. Carriers of the rarer allele should be eliminated by selection against Rhesus positive children born to Rhesus negative mothers. Here I used an ecologic regression study to test the hypothesis that Rhesus factor polymorphism is stabilized by heterozygote advantage. The study was performed in 65 countries for which the frequencies of RhD phenotypes and specific disease burden data were available. I performed multiple multivariate covariance analysis with five potential confounding variables: GDP, latitude (distance from the equator), humidity, medical care expenditure per capita and frequencies of smokers. The results showed that the burden associated with many diseases correlated with the frequencies of particular Rhesus genotypes in a country and that the direction of the relation was nearly always the opposite for the frequency of Rhesus negative homozygotes and that of Rhesus positive heterozygotes. On the population level, a Rhesus-negativity-associated burden could be compensated for by the heterozygote advantage, but for Rhesus negative subjects this burden represents a serious problem.