NEGATIVE EPISTASIS BETWEEN α+ THALASSAEMIA AND SICKLE CELL TRAIT CAN EXPLAIN INTERPOPULATION VARIATION IN SOUTH ASIA

Recent studies in Kenya and Ghana have shown that individuals who inherit two malaria‐protective genetic disorders of haemoglobin—α+ thalassaemia and sickle cell trait—experience a much lower level of malaria protection than those who inherit sickle cell trait alone. We have previously demonstrated that this can limit the frequency of α+ thalassaemia in a population in which sickle cell is present, which may account for the frequency of α+ thalassaemia in sub‐Saharan Africa not exceeding 50%. Here we consider the relationship between α+ thalassaemia and sickle cell in South Asian populations, and show that very high levels of α+ thalassaemia combined with varying levels of malaria selection can explain why sickle cell has penetrated certain South Asian populations but not others.

• Publication year

  2011

• Venue

  Evolution; international journal of organic evolution

• Publication date

  2011-12-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01408.xPMID 22133230PMCID 3263337
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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