Evolution of cytokine production capacity in ancient and modern European populations

Jorge Dominguez-Andres, Yunus Kuijpers, Olivier B. Bakker, Martin Jaeger, Cheng-Jian Xu, Jos Wm Van der Meer, Mattias Jakobsson, Jaume Bertranpetit, Leo Ab Joosten, Yang Li*, Mihai G. Netea

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    14 Citations (Scopus)
    143 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    As our ancestors migrated throughout different continents, natural selection increased the presence of alleles advantageous in the new environments. Heritable variations that alter the susceptibility to diseases vary with the historical period, the virulence of the infections, and their geographical spread. In this study we built polygenic scores for heritable traits that influence the genetic adaptation in the production of cytokines and immune-mediated disorders, including infectious, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases, and applied them to the genomes of several ancient European populations. We observed that the advent of the Neolithic was a turning point for immune-mediated traits in Europeans, favoring those alleles linked with the development of tolerance against intracellular pathogens and promoting inflammatory responses against extracellular microbes. These evolutionary patterns are also associated with an increased presence of traits related to inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number64971
    Number of pages15
    JournaleLife
    Volume10
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 7-Sept-2021

    Keywords

    • SELECTIVE PRESSURES
    • NATURAL-SELECTION
    • INNATE IMMUNITY
    • DISEASES
    • ASSOCIATION

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