A new population genetics analysis of human prion gene evolution contradicts a 2003 Science paper that claimed commonplace cannibalism among prehistoric humans shaped evolution of the prion gene. In the February issue of Genome Research, Marta Soldevila and her colleagues at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, say they have corrected a data collection bias in the original paper, and their results show no evidence that either prion disease or cannibalism significantly shaped human evolution.
"This is a definitive analysis," said Martin Kreitman of the University of Chicago, who was not an author of the new study. Authors of the Science paper "didn't have support for balancing selection that they claimed," Kreitman said.
A common methionine/valine polymorphism at codon 129 of the human prion protein gene PRNP can influence risk of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Homozygosity for either amino acid has been linked to increased susceptibility to TSEs, including to ...
