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Science 20 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5823, p. 370
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137568
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Technical Comments

Comment on "Ongoing Adaptive Evolution of ASPM, a Brain Size Determinant in Homo sapiens"

Fuli Yu,1,2 R. Sean Hill,2,3,4 Stephen F. Schaffner,2 Pardis C. Sabeti,2 Eric T. Wang,5,6 Andre A. Mignault,1 Russell J. Ferland,3,4 Robert K. Moyzis,5,6 Christopher A. Walsh,2,3,4 David Reich1,2*

Mekel-Bobrov et al. (Reports, 9 September 2005, p. 1720) suggested that ASPM, a gene associated with microcephaly, underwent natural selection within the last 500 to 14,100 years. Their analyses based on comparison with computer simulations indicated that ASPM had an unusual pattern of variation. However, when we compare ASPM empirically to a large number of other loci, its variation is not unusual and does not support selection.

1 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
2 Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
3 Division of Neurogenetics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
4 Division of Genetics, Children's Hospital Boston, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
5 Department of Biological Chemistry, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
6 Institute of Genomics and Bioinformatics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: reich{at}genetics.med.harvard.edu

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