RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 No Genetic Vertigo JF Science Signaling JO Sci. Signal. FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP ec207 OP ec207 DO 10.1126/scisignal.3129ec207 VO 3 IS 129 A1 Zahn, Laura M. YR 2010 UL http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/3/129/ec207.abstract AB Peoples living in high altitudes have adapted to their situation (see the Perspective by Storz). To identify gene regions that might have contributed to high-altitude adaptation in Tibetans, Simonson et al. conducted a genome scan of nucleotide polymorphism comparing Tibetans, Han Chinese, and Japanese, while Yi et al. performed comparable analyses on the coding regions of all genes—their exomes. Both studies converged on a gene, endothelial PAS domain protein 1 (also known as hypoxia-inducible factor 2α), which has been linked to the regulation of red blood cell production. Other genes identified that were potentially under selection included adult and fetal hemoglobin and two functional candidate loci that were correlated with low hemoglobin concentration in Tibetans. Future detailed functional studies will now be required to examine the mechanistic underpinnings of physiological adaptation to high altitudes. T. S. Simonson, Y. Yang, C. D. Huff, H. Yun, G. Qin, D. J. Witherspoon, Z. Bai, F. R. Lorenzo, J. Xing, L. B. Jorde, J. T. Prchal, R. Ge, Genetic evidence for high-altitude adaptation in Tibet. Science 329, 72–75 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] X. Yi, Y. Liang, E. Huerta-Sanchez, X. Jin, Z. X. P. Cuo, J. E. Pool, X. Xu, H. Jiang, N. Vinckenbosch, T. S. Korneliussen, H. Zheng, T. Liu, W. He, K. Li, R. Luo, X. Nie, H. Wu, M. Zhao, H. Cao, J. Zou, Y. Shan, S. Li, Q. Yang, Asan, P. Ni, G. Tian, J. Xu, X. Liu, T. Jiang, R. Wu, G. Zhou, M. Tang, J. Qin, T. Wang, S. Feng, G. Li, Huasang, J. Luosang, W. Wang, F. Chen, Y. Wang, X. Zheng, Z. Li, Z. Bianba, G. Yang, X. Wang, S. Tang, G. Gao, Y. Chen, Z. Luo, L. Gusang, Z. Cao, Q. Zhang, W. Ouyang, X. Ren, H. Liang, H. Zheng, Y. Huang, J. Li, L. Bolund, K. Kristiansen, Y. Li, Y. Zhang, X. Zhang, R. Li, S. Li, H. Yang, R. Nielsen, J. Wang, J. Wang, Sequencing of 50 human exomes reveals adaptation to high altitude. Science 329, 75–78 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] J. F. Storz, Genes for high altitudes. Science 329, 40–41 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]