Gilks, William P, Abbott, Jessica K and Morrow, Edward H (2014) Sex differences in disease genetics: evidence, evolution, and detection. Trends in Genetics, 30 (10). pp. 453-463. ISSN 0168-9525

PDF - Published Version Restricted to SRO admin only Download (974kB)

Abstract

Understanding the genetic architecture of disease is an enormous challenge, and should be guided by evolutionary principles. Recent studies in evolutionary genetics show that sexual selection can have a profound influence on the genetic architecture of complex traits. Here, we summarise data from heritability studies and genome-wide association studies (GWASs) showing that common genetic variation influences many diseases and medically relevant traits in a sex-dependent manner. In addition, we discuss how the discovery of sex-dependent effects in population samples is improved by joint interaction analysis (rather than separate-sex), as well as by recently developed software. Finally, we argue that although genetic variation that has sex-dependent effects on disease risk could be maintained by mutation-selection balance and genetic drift, recent evidence indicates that intra-locus sexual conflict could be a powerful influence on complex trait architecture, and maintain sex-dependent disease risk alleles in a population because they are beneficial to the opposite sex.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Life Sciences > Evolution, Behaviour and Environment
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The Family. Marriage. Women > HQ1075 Sex role Q Science Q Science > QH Natural history > QH0301 Biology > QH0426 Genetics > QH0447 Genes. Alleles. Genome Q Science > QH Natural history > QH0301 Biology > QH0426 Genetics > QH0460 Mutations R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Related URLs:	Organisation
Depositing User:	William Gilks
Date Deposited:	04 Nov 2014 13:54
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2019 18:00
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/50853

View download statistics for this item

📧 Request an update