deCODE Discovers Gene Variants that May Help to Distribute the Work of Evolution between Men...( REYKJAVIK Iceland Jan. 31 /- Scie...)

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Scientists from deCODE genetics (Nasdaq: DCGN) today report the discovery of two common, single-letter variants in the sequence of the human genome (SNPs) that regulate one of the principle motors of evolution. Versions of the two SNPs, located on chromosome 4p16, have a genome-wide impact on the rate of recombination -- the reshuffling of the genome that occurs in the formation of eggs and sperm. Recombination is largely responsible for generating human diversity, the novel configurations of the genome that enable the species to adapt and evolve in an ever-changing environment. Yet remarkably, the versions of the SNPs that increase recombination in men decrease it in women, and vice versa. This highly unusual characteristic may enable the variants to help to maintain a fundamental tension crucial for evolutionary success: promoting the generation of significant diversity within a portion of the population but keeping the pace of this change within certain bounds, maintaining it relatively constant overall and so supporting the stability of the genome and the cohesiveness of the species.

"This is the latest in a series of landmark papers from deCODE in which we have utilized our unique capabilities in human genetics to elucidate some of the key mechanisms driving human evolution," said Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE. "We are also excited that we can now immediately enable individuals to see if they carry such variants, by folding the findings announced today -- and others we expect to publish in the near future -- into our deCODEme(TM) personal genome analysis service."

The deCODE team identified the SNPs through a genome-wide analysis of more than 300,000 SNPs in approxi
'/>"/>