Searching for the footprints of pathogen presures in the human genome
Event details
| Date | 13.02.2009 |
| Hour | 15:30 |
| Speaker | Lluis Quintana-Murci |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Inferences concerning the action of natural selection in the human genome provide a powerful tool for predicting regions of the genome potentially associated with disease. This relationship is evident in the case of infectious diseases, as, before the advent of antibiotics and vaccines, infectious diseases have been paramount among the threats to health and survival for most of human evolutionary history. To date, some of the strongest evidence for selection in the human genome has been obtained for human genes involved in the immune response or host-pathogen interactions. However, very few studies have investigated the extent to which pathogens have exerted selective pressure on the innate immune system. The genes encoding the Toll-like receptors, the C-type lectins and the scavenger receptors are the principal innate immunity genes involved in pathogen recognition, and the crucial roles of the proteins they encode make them ideal targets of natural selection. I will review our most recent data on natural selection acting on human genes involved in immune-related processes or host-pathogen interactions. These studies, which go from global genomewide scans to more fine-tuned analyses in specific genes or gene families, highlight how the identification of selected loci or variants of immunity-related genes may provide insight into host genes or pathways playing an important role in pathogen resistance. Finally, using the human Toll-like receptor gene family as a paradigm, I will show how the integration of our data into a clinical and epidemiological framework clearly illustrates the value of adopting an evolutionary perspective to biological questions, such as the relevance of genes in immunity to infection.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. Bruno Lemaitre