Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 20 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5823, p. 370
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137568
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

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

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)