An Evolutionary Genetic Framework for Heritable Disorders

Matthew C Keller, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Published online: July 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020809

Natural selection is expected to drive the frequencies of heritable, fitness-harming states to very low levels, yet many heritable disorders – and especially mental disorder – are common in the human population. These two statements are sometimes interpreted to imply that disorders have not been under natural selection, but this need not be the case. Evolutionary genetics provides three broad classes of models, none of them mutually exclusive, for understanding why disorder risk alleles have persisted in the human population despite natural selection.

Keywords: mental disorders; genetics; evolution; mutation-selection; balancing-selection; schizophrenia

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Related Sub-Topics:

Molecular Evolution | Selection and Variation | Human Evolution | Population Structure and Genetics | Molecular Genetics of Common and Complex Disease | Inter-Individual Variation and Polymorphism
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Article Title: An Evolutionary Genetic Framework for Heritable Disorders
 
How to Cite close
Keller, Matthew C(Jul 2008) An Evolutionary Genetic Framework for Heritable Disorders. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020809]