Analysis of CCR5Delta32 geographic distribution and its correlation with some climatic and geographic factors.
We studied the possible effects of climatic-geographic factors on the world distribution of the mutant allele for the chemokine receptor gene CCR5, which has a 32-bp deletion (CCR5Delta32) preventing cell invasion by the primary transmitting strain of HIV-1. New data on CCR5 polymorphisms in Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldavian populations are presented. All available data on CCR5Delta32 frequencies in the Old World (number of populations n = 77) were used for construction of a geographical gene map to analyze possible correlations between allele frequencies and eight climatic-geographic parameters. A strong positive correlation was found between the allele frequency and latitude (r = 0.72), a strong negative correlation with annual radiation balance (r = -0.66), and a weaker negative correlation with longitude (r = -0.34). Partial correlations were calculated excluding the influence of latitude. The negative correlation between the allele frequency and annual radiation balance decreased (r = -0.42), but remained large and significant. We propose that the existence of correlations between the cline of CCR5Delta32 frequencies and climatic-geographic parameters provides evidence for a possible effect of either natural environmental factors or large-scale population movements on the distribution of this allele.
Limborska
Svetlana A
SA
Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. limbor@img.ras.ru
Balanovsky
Oleg P
OP
Balanovskaya
Elena V
EV
Slominsky
Peter A
PA
Schadrina
Maria I
MI
Livshits
Ludmila A
LA
Kravchenko
Sergey A
SA
Pampuha
Vladimir M
VM
Khusnutdinova
Elza K
EK
Spitsyn
Victor A
VA
D002980:Climate; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006801:Humans; D008966:Moldova / Q000453:epidemiology; D019713:Receptors, CCR5 / Q000235:genetics*; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013696:Temperature; D014455:Ukraine / Q000453:epidemiology
D019713:Receptors, CCR5