Recent Selection on a Class I ADH Locus Distinguishes Southwest Asian Populations Including Ashkenazi Jews

Evidence of positive selection on a class I ADH locus.

The alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) family of enzymes catalyzes the reversible oxidation of alcohol to acetaldehyde. Seven ADH genes exist in a segment of ~370 kb on 4q21. Products of the three class I ADH genes that share 95% sequence identity are believed to play the major role in the first step of ethanol metabolism. Because the common belief that selection has operated at the ADH1B*47His allele...

HLA class II susceptibility to multiple sclerosis among Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jews.

OBJECTIVE To look for HLA class II alleles and haplotypes conferring susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS) in the Jewish population of Israel. DESIGN Population-based cohort of clinically definite patients with MS tested prospectively over 7 years. SETTING Referral center in a neurology clinic at a university hospital in the greater Jerusalem area in Israel. PATIENTS A total of 162 co...

Familial Mediterranean fever in Ashkenazi Jews.

Ethnic Related Selection for an ADH Class I Variant within East Asia

BACKGROUND The alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) are widely studied enzymes and the evolution of the mammalian gene cluster encoding these enzymes is also well studied. Previous studies have shown that the ADH1B*47His allele at one of the seven genes in humans is associated with a decrease in the risk of alcoholism and the core molecular region with this allele has been selected for in some East Asi...

Factor XI mutation and the origin of Ashkenazi Jews.

1. Zadra G, Asselta R, Tenchini ML, Castaman G, Seligsohn U, Mannucci PM, et al. Simultaneous genotyping of coagulation factor XI type II and type III mutations by multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction to determine their prevalence in healthy and factor XI-deficient Italians. Haematologica 2008; 93:715-21. 2. Rodriguez-Mari A, Diaz-Font A, Chabas A, Pastores GM, Grinberg D, Vilageliu L....