ArticlePLoS genetics2009
Widespread genomic signatures of natural selection in hominid evolution.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 300 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
300 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Common schizophrenia alleles are enriched in mutation-intolerant genes and in regions under strong background selection.Nature genetics · 2018Pooled it
- Allelic gene conversion softens selective sweeps.Genetics · 2026Article
- Genomic insights into natural selection in recent human history.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Prediction of human missense variant effects from functional evidence.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Limited Selection on Neanderthal DNA in 30,780 Recently Admixed Genomes with African-like Ancestry.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Long-term isolation and archaic introgression shape functional genetic variation in Near Oceania.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Pervasive cryptic selection in the human noncoding genome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Causal inference clarifies the roles of background selection and mutation rate variation in shaping human genetic diversity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sequence context and methylation interact to shape germline mutation rate variation at CpG sites.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Article
- Sequence context and methylation interact to shape germline mutation rate variation at CpG sites.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Background selection in recombining genomes and its consequences for the maintenance of variation in complex traits.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Beyond Exons: Linking Noncoding Heritability and Polygenicity across Complex Human Traits and Disorders.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Identifying Adaptive Footprints in the Presence of Demographic Uncertainty.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- ThebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Recovering signatures of archaic introgression using ancestral recombination graphs.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Comparing Neanderthal Introgression Maps Reveals Core Agreement But Substantial Heterogeneity.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
240 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Selection acting on genomic functional elements can be detected by its indirect effects on population diversity at linked neutral sites. To illuminate the selective forces that shaped hominid evolution, we analyzed the genomic distributions of human polymorphisms and sequence differences among five primate species relative to the locations of conserved sequence features. Neutral sequence diversity in human and ancestral hominid populations is substantially reduced near such features, resulting in a surprisingly large genome average diversity reduction due to selection of 19-26% on the autosomes and 12-40% on the X chromosome. The overall trends are broadly consistent with "background selection" or hitchhiking in ancestral populations acting to remove deleterious variants. Average selection is much stronger on exonic (both protein-coding and untranslated) conserved features than non-exonic features. Long term selection, rather than complex speciation scenarios, explains the large intragenomic variation in human/chimpanzee divergence. Our analyses reveal a dominant role for selection in shaping genomic diversity and divergence patterns, clarify hominid evolution, and provide a baseline for investigating specific selective events.
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