title: Analysis of DNA variations in GSTA and GSTM gene clusters based on the results of genome-wide data from three Russian populations taken as an example.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Extensive genome-wide analyses of many human populations, using microarrays containing hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, have provided us with abundant information about global genomic diversity. However, these data can also be used to analyze local variability in individual genomic regions. In this study, we analyzed the variability in two genomic regions carrying the genes of the GSTA and GSTM subfamilies, located on different chromosomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analysis of the polymorphisms in GSTA and GSTM gene clusters showed similarities in their allelic and haplotype diversities. These patterns were similar in three Russian populations and the CEU population of European origin. There were statistically significant differences in all the haploblocks of both the GSTM and GSTA regions when the Russian populations were compared with populations from China and Japan. Most haploblocks also differed between the Russians and Nigerians from Yoruba, but, some of them had similar allelic frequencies. Special attention was paid to SNP rs4986947 from the intron of the GSTA4 gene, which is represented in apes by an A nucleotide. In the Asian and African samples, it was represented only by a G allele, and both allelic variants (G/A) occurred in the Russian and European populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results obtained suggest the presence of common features in the evolutionary histories of the GSTA and GSTM gene regions, and that African subpopulations were involved differently in the formation of the European and Asian human lineages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Bases of Human Genetics, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Ireha_08@mail.ru
authors.forename: Irina N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Filippova
authors.forename: Andrey V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Khrunin
authors.forename: Svetlana A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Limborska
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002896:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D005810:Multigene Family; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012426:Russia; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D005982:Glutathione Transferase; C484555:GSTA1 protein, human