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- Title
Tread Lightly Interpreting Polygenic Tests of Selection.
- Authors
Novembre, John; Barton, Nicholas H.
- Abstract
In this issue of GENETICS, a new method for detecting natural selection on polygenic traits is developed and applied to several human examples (Racimo et al. 2018). By definition, many loci contribute to variation in polygenic traits, and a challenge for evolutionary geneticists has been that these traits can evolve by small, nearly undetectable shifts in allele frequencies across each of many, typically unknown, loci. Recently, a helpful remedy has arisen. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been illuminating sets of loci that can be interrogated jointly for changes in allele frequencies. By aggregating small signals of change across many such loci, directional natural selection is now in principle detectable using genetic data, even for highly polygenic traits. This is an exciting arena of progress - with these methods, tests can be made for selection associated with traits, and we can now study selection in what may be its most prevalent mode. The continuing fast pace of GWAS publications suggest there will be many more polygenic tests of selection in the near future, as every new GWAS is an opportunity for an accompanying test of polygenic selection. However, it is important to be aware of complications that arise in interpretation, especially given that these studies may easily be misinterpreted both in and outside the evolutionary genetics community. Here, we provide context for understanding polygenic tests and urge caution regarding how these results are interpreted and reported upon more broadly.
- Subjects
GENETICS; GENOMICS; PHYLOGENY; SINGLE nucleotide polymorphisms; GENOMES
- Publication
Genetics, 2018, Vol 208, Issue 4, p1351
- ISSN
0016-6731
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1534/genetics.118.300786