An evolutionary perspective on complex neuropsychiatric disease
Journal
Neuron
Journal Volume
112
Journal Issue
1
Pages
7
Date Issued
2024-01-03
Author(s)
McClellan, Jon M
Zoghbi, Anthony W
Buxbaum, Joseph D
Cappi, Carolina
Crowley, James J
Flint, Jonathan
Grice, Dorothy E
Gulsuner, Suleyman
Iyegbe, Conrad
Jain, Sanjeev
Lattig, Maria Claudia
Passos-Bueno, Maria Rita
Purushottam, Meera
Stein, Dan J
Sunshine, Anna B
Susser, Ezra S
Walsh, Christopher A
Wootton, Olivia
King, Mary-Claire
Abstract
The forces of evolution-mutation, selection, migration, and genetic drift-shape the genetic architecture of human traits, including the genetic architecture of complex neuropsychiatric illnesses. Studying these illnesses in populations that are diverse in genetic ancestry, historical demography, and cultural history can reveal how evolutionary forces have guided adaptation over time and place. A fundamental truth of shared human biology is that an allele responsible for a disease in anyone, anywhere, reveals a gene critical to the normal biology underlying that condition in everyone, everywhere. Understanding the genetic causes of neuropsychiatric disease in the widest possible range of human populations thus yields the greatest possible range of insight into genes critical to human brain development. In this perspective, we explore some of the relationships between genes, adaptation, and history that can be illuminated by an evolutionary perspective on studies of complex neuropsychiatric disease in diverse populations.
Subjects
22q11 deletion; OCD; assortative mating; autism; bipolar disorder; causality; clinical heterogeneity; complex neuropsychiatric disease; consanguinity; de novo mutation; evolution; genetic drift; genetics; genomics; migration; polygenic inheritance; rare alleles; schizophrenia; selection; somatic mutation
Publisher
Cell Press
Type
review