Balan, B. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2018

Sequencing and de novo assembly reveals genomic variations associated with differential responses of Candida albicans ATCC 10231 towards fluconazole, pH and non-invasive growth

The whole genome sequencing generated 8.09 million paired-end reads, which were assembled into 2,262 scaffolds totaling 17,113,050 bp in length. We predict 7,654 coding regions and 7,647 genes, and annotated the coding regions with gene ontology terms based on similarity to other annotated genomes. Genome comparisons revealed variations (including SNP and indels in genes involved in pH response, fluconazole resistance and invasive growth) compared to C. albicans SC5314 and WO1.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Holocene selection for variants associated with cognitive ability: Comparing ancient and modern genomes.

Human populations living in Eurasia during the Holocene experienced significant evolutionary change. It has been predicted that the transition of Holocene populations into agrarianism and urbanization brought about culture-gene co-evolution that favoured via directional selection genetic variants associated with higher general cognitive ability (GCA). Population expansion and replacement has also been proposed as an important source of GCA gene-frequency change during this time period. To examine whether GCA might have risen during the Holocene, we compare a sample of 99 ancient Eurasian genomes (ranging from 4,557 to 1,208 years of age) with a sample of 503 modern European genomes, using three different cognitive polygenic scores. Significant differences favouring the modern genomes were found for all three polygenic scores (Odds Ratio=0.92, p=0.037; 0.81, p=0.001 and 0.81, p=0.02). Furthermore, a significant increase in positive allele count over 3,249 years was found using a sample of 66 ancient genomes (r=0.217, pone-tailed=0.04). These observations are consistent with the expectation that GCA rose during the Holocene.

genomics↗