I remember reading that chimps, I think, showed more
polymorphism (for microsatellites or SNPs, can't remember
which) than humans, indicative of a past bottleneck in
human population size. Of course, I can't find the
reference now. A quick search of Medline pulled out, for
example:
Gagneux P, Varki A.
Genetic differences between humans and great apes.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2001 Jan;18(1):2-13. Review.
PMID: 11161737 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
the abstract of which refers to polymorphisms
and also
Adams EJ, Cooper S, Thomson G, Parham P.
Common chimpanzees have greater diversity than humans at two
of the three highly polymorphic MHC class I genes.
Immunogenetics. 2000 May;51(6):410-24.
PMID: 10866107 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Back to MHC I'm afraid. However, I got 772 hits searching on
"primates human polymorphism" and only checked a few.
Best wishes
Ian Mackay
<syzygium at alphalink.com.au> wrote in message
news:9ehh41$kda$1 at mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk...
> Thank you for your reply. The Major histocompatibility
complex (MHC) is
> certainly the most variable part of the genome. However,
its polymorphism is
> probably not appropriate to my particular interest,
because it is strongly
> conserved by natural selection. MHC molecules initiate an
immune response to
> parasites.
>> My interest is in the overall nuclear sequence divergence
in a large number of
> human individuals compared with the overall nuclear
sequence divergence in a
> large number of chimpanzees. Much of this divergence is
probably not
> essential to the survival of each species, and therefore
not strongly
> conserved by natural selection.
>> This work is probably just starting to be done now. I
suppose I shall have to
> be patient. I'll keep checking the current literature.
>> With thanks,
> Andrew Gyles
>>>>>>>> In article <9eemll$m0t$1 at mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk>, Bob
Friedman
> <friedmar at biol.sc.edu> writes:
> >I did a cursory check of Genbank -- would the MHC
molecule be useful?
> >Bob
> >
> >
> ><syzygium at alphalink.com.au> > Has the Human Genome
Project, and research on
> >a wide range of individuals,
> >> found that humans have few alleles in their nuclear
chromosomes compared
> >with
> >> chimpanzees?
> >>
> >> I realise that most of the chimpanzee genome has not
yet been sequenced or
> >> examined in a wide range of individuals, but are any
comparisons available
> >at
> >> all?
> >
> >
> >
> >---
> >
> >
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