Evidence map›Paper›PMID 16687733›Full record

ArticleGenome research2006

How reliable are empirical genomic scans for selective sweeps?

Kosuke M Teshima, Graham Coop, Molly Przeworski

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Genome research, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 217 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
217citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

217 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 413 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Genomic investigations of successful invasions: the picture emerging from recent studies.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025
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  8. Genetic Variation in the Main Cultivar Collection ofCurrent issues in molecular biology · 2026
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  9. Towards an evolutionary baseline model ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
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  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
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157 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Kosuke M TeshimaDepartment of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. kteshima@uchicago.edu
Graham Coop
Molly Przeworski
University of Chicago · US

Funding

Linkage Disequilibrium Methods For Complex Trait MappingR01HG002772 · NHGRI · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI PRITCHARD, JONATHAN K · 2003 to 2007
$1.7M
Identifying human adaptations: theory and applicationsR01GM072861 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI PRZEWORSKI, MOLLY F · 2005 to 2009
$982k
NHGRI NIH HHS HG002772NHGRI NIH HHS R01 HG002772NIGMS NIH HHS GM72861NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM072861
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The beneficial substitution of an allele shapes patterns of genetic variation at linked sites. Thus, in principle, adaptations can be mapped by looking for the signature of directional selection in polymorphism data. In practice, such efforts are hampered by the need for an accurate characterization of the demographic history of the species and of the effects of positive selection. In an attempt to circumvent these difficulties, researchers are increasingly taking a purely empirical approach, in which a large number of genomic regions are ordered by summaries of the polymorphism data, and loci with extreme values are considered to be likely targets of positive selection. We evaluated the reliability of the "empirical" approach, focusing on applications to human data and to maize. To do so, we considered a coalescent model of directional selection in a sensible demographic setting, allowing for selection on standing variation as well as on a new mutation. Our simulations suggest that while empirical approaches will identify several interesting candidates, they will also miss many--in some cases, most--loci of interest. The extent of the trade-off depends on the mode of positive selection and the demographic history of the population. Specifically, the false-discovery rate is higher when directional selection involves a recessive rather than a co-dominant allele, when it acts on a previously neutral rather than a new allele, and when the population has experienced a population bottleneck rather than maintained a constant size. One implication of these results is that, insofar as attributes of the beneficial mutation (e.g., the dominance coefficient) affect the power to detect targets of selection, genomic scans will yield an unrepresentative subset of loci that contribute to adaptations.

Indexed as

Polymorphism, GeneticSelection, GeneticAfrica South of the SaharaDemographyGene FrequencyGenetics, PopulationGenomicsHumansModels, GeneticMutationResearch DesignZea mays

Identifiers

PMID16687733
PMCPMC1473181
OpenAlexW2156886335

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.