A fine-scale recombination map of the human-chimpanzee ancestor reveals faster change in humans than in chimpanzees and a strong impact of GC-biased gene conversion

TY - JOUR

T1 - A fine-scale recombination map of the human-chimpanzee ancestor reveals faster change in humans than in chimpanzees and a strong impact of GC-biased gene conversion

AU - Munch, Kasper

AU - Mailund, Thomas

AU - Dutheil, Julien Y

AU - Schierup, Mikkel H

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Recombination is a major determinant of adaptive and non-adaptive evolution. Understanding how the recombination landscape has evolved in humans is thus key to the interpretation of human genomic evolution. Comparison of fine-scale recombination maps of human and chimpanzee has revealed large changes at fine genomic scales and conservation over large scales. Here we show how a fine-scale recombination map can be derived for the ancestor of human and chimpanzee allowing us to study the changes that occurred in human and chimpanzee since these species diverged. The map is produced from more than one million accurately determined recombination events. We find that this new recombination map is intermediate to the maps of human and chimpanzee but that the recombination landscape has evolved more rapidly on the human lineage than on the chimpanzee lineage. We use the map to show that recombination rate, through the effect of GC-biased gene conversion, is an even stronger determinant of base composition evolution than previously reported.

AB - Recombination is a major determinant of adaptive and non-adaptive evolution. Understanding how the recombination landscape has evolved in humans is thus key to the interpretation of human genomic evolution. Comparison of fine-scale recombination maps of human and chimpanzee has revealed large changes at fine genomic scales and conservation over large scales. Here we show how a fine-scale recombination map can be derived for the ancestor of human and chimpanzee allowing us to study the changes that occurred in human and chimpanzee since these species diverged. The map is produced from more than one million accurately determined recombination events. We find that this new recombination map is intermediate to the maps of human and chimpanzee but that the recombination landscape has evolved more rapidly on the human lineage than on the chimpanzee lineage. We use the map to show that recombination rate, through the effect of GC-biased gene conversion, is an even stronger determinant of base composition evolution than previously reported.

U2 - 10.1101/gr.158469.113

DO - 10.1101/gr.158469.113

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24190946

SN - 1088-9051

JO - Genome Research

JF - Genome Research

ER -