Abstract
One of the most striking findings to emerge from the study of genomic
patterns of variation is that regions with lower recombination rates
tend to have lower levels of intraspecific diversity but not of interspecies
divergence. This uncoupling of variation within and between species
has been widely interpreted as evidence that natural selection shapes
patterns of genetic variability genomewide. We revisited the relationship
between diversity, divergence, and recombination in humans, using
data from closely related species and better estimates of recombination
rates than previously available. We show that regions that experience
less recombination have reduced divergence to chimpanzee and to baboon,
as well as lower levels of diversity. This observation suggests that
mutation and recombination are associated processes in humans, so
that the positive correlation between diversity and recombination
may have a purely neutral explanation. Consistent with this hypothesis,
diversity levels no longer increase significantly with recombination
rates after correction for divergence to chimpanzee.
- analysis,mutation,pan
- animals,genetic
- genetic,multivariate
- genetic,recombination,
- genetic,statistics,
- genetics,papio,papio:
- genetics,polymorphism,
- human,humans,linear
- models,models,
- nonparametric
- troglodytes,pan
- troglodytes:
- variation,genome,
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