Abstract

Infectious diseases exert a constant evolutionary pressure on the genetic makeup of our innate immune system. Polymorphisms in Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) have been related to susceptibility to Gram-negative infections and septic shock. Here we show that two polymorphisms of TLR4, Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile, have unique distributions in populations from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Genetic and functional studies are compatible with a model in which the nonsynonymous polymorphism Asp299Gly has evolved as a protective allele against malaria, explaining its high prevalence in subSaharan Africa. However, the same allele could have been disadvantageous after migration of modern humans into Eurasia, putatively because of increased susceptibility to severe bacterial infections. In contrast, the Asp299Gly allele, when present in cosegregation with Thr399Ile to form the Asp299Gly/Thr399Ile haplotype, shows selective neutrality. Polymorphisms in TLR4 exemplify how the interaction between our innate immune system and the infectious pressures in particular environments may have shaped the genetic variations and function of our immune system during the out-of-Africa migration of modern humans.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Garrett Hellenthal (University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.) for kindly proving a modified version of msHOT. This work was supported by a Vidi Grant of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (to M.G.N.) and an FP6 European network of Excellence (BioMalPar) fellowship (to M.B.B.M.). The Servicios Generales de Investigacion/Ikerkuntzarako Zerbitsu Orokorrak-Servicios Generales-Ikerkuntza (SGI/IZO-SGIker) UPV/EHU (supported by the National Program for the Promotion of Human Resources within the National Plan of Scientific Research, Development and Innovation–Fondo Social Europeo, McyT, and the Basque Government) is gratefully acknowledged for generous allocation of computational resources.

Supporting Information

Adobe PDF - 04828Table3.pdf
Adobe PDF - 04828Table3.pdf

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Information & Authors

Information

Published in

The cover image for PNAS Vol.104; No.42
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Vol. 104 | No. 42
October 16, 2007
PubMed: 17925445

Classifications

Submission history

Received: May 23, 2007
Published online: October 16, 2007
Published in issue: October 16, 2007

Keywords

  1. cytokines
  2. human migration
  3. innate immunity
  4. Toll-like receptor 4
  5. sepsis

Acknowledgments

We thank Garrett Hellenthal (University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.) for kindly proving a modified version of msHOT. This work was supported by a Vidi Grant of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (to M.G.N.) and an FP6 European network of Excellence (BioMalPar) fellowship (to M.B.B.M.). The Servicios Generales de Investigacion/Ikerkuntzarako Zerbitsu Orokorrak-Servicios Generales-Ikerkuntza (SGI/IZO-SGIker) UPV/EHU (supported by the National Program for the Promotion of Human Resources within the National Plan of Scientific Research, Development and Innovation–Fondo Social Europeo, McyT, and the Basque Government) is gratefully acknowledged for generous allocation of computational resources.

Notes

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0704828104/DC1.

Authors

Affiliations

Bart Ferwerda
Department of Internal Medicine and
Nijmegen University Center for Infectious Diseases,
Matthew B. B. McCall
Department of Internal Medicine and
Departments of cParasitology and
Santos Alonso
Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology, and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country, Barrio Sarriena s/n 48940 Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain;
Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis
Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, Attikon University Hospital, 1 Rimin Str., 124 62 Athens, Greece;
Maria Mouktaroudi
Fourth Department of Internal Medicine, Attikon University Hospital, 1 Rimin Str., 124 62 Athens, Greece;
Neskuts Izagirre
Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology, and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country, Barrio Sarriena s/n 48940 Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain;
Din Syafruddin
Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Diponegoro 69, Jakarta 10430, Indonesia;
Gibson Kibiki
Department of Internal Medicine, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Tumaini University, P.O. Box 3010, Moshi, Tanzania;
Tudor Cristea
“Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, P.O. Box 3400, Str. Emil Isaac 13, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Institutes of
Anneke Hijmans
Department of Internal Medicine and
Lutz Hamann
Shoshana Israel
Tissue Typing Unit and Bone Marrow Registry, Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem Ein Karem, Kiryat Hadassah, P.O. Box 12000, 91120, Israel;
Gehad ElGhazali
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Karthoum University, P.O. Box 102, Sudan;
Marita Troye-Blomberg
Wenner-Gren Institute of Immunology, University of Stockholm, Svante Arrhenius väg 16–18, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden;
Oliver Kumpf
Robert-Rössle-Klinik, Klinik für Chirurgie und Chirurgische Onkologie, Charité University Medical Center Berlin, 13125 Berlin, Germany; and
Boubacar Maiga
Department of Epidemiology of Parasitic Disease and
Amagana Dolo
Malaria Research and Training Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bamako, Campus de Badalabougou, BPE2528, Mali
Ogobara Doumbo
Malaria Research and Training Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bamako, Campus de Badalabougou, BPE2528, Mali
Cornelus C. Hermsen
Departments of cParasitology and
Anton F. H. Stalenhoef
Department of Internal Medicine and
Reinout van Crevel
Department of Internal Medicine and
Nijmegen University Center for Infectious Diseases,
Han G. Brunner
Human Genetics, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, Geert Grooteplein 8, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
Djin-Ye Oh
Microbiology and Hygiene, Charité University Medical Center, Humboldt University Berlin, Dorotheenstrasse 96, D-10117 Berlin, Germany;
Ralf R. Schumann
Microbiology and Hygiene, Charité University Medical Center, Humboldt University Berlin, Dorotheenstrasse 96, D-10117 Berlin, Germany;
Concepcion de la Rúa
Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology, and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country, Barrio Sarriena s/n 48940 Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain;
Robert Sauerwein
Departments of cParasitology and
Bart-Jan Kullberg
Department of Internal Medicine and
Nijmegen University Center for Infectious Diseases,
André J. A. M. van der Ven
Department of Internal Medicine and
Nijmegen University Center for Infectious Diseases,
Jos W. M. van der Meer
Department of Internal Medicine and
Nijmegen University Center for Infectious Diseases,
Mihai G. Netear [email protected]
Department of Internal Medicine and
Nijmegen University Center for Infectious Diseases,

Notes

r
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
Author contributions: B.F., M.B.B.M., S.A., H.G.B., R.R.S., C.d.l.R., R.S., B.-J.K., A.J.A.M.v.d.V., J.W.M.v.d.M., and M.G.N. designed research; B.F., M.B.B.M., S.A., E.J.G.-B., M.M., N.I., A.H., B.M., and A.D. performed research; D.S., G.K., T.C., L.H., S.I., G.E., M.T.-B., O.K., O.D., C.C.H., A.F.H.S., R.v.C., and D.-Y.O. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; B.F., M.B.B.M., S.A., E.J.G.-B., M.M., A.H., B.-J.K., A.J.A.M.v.d.V., J.W.M.v.d.M., and M.G.N. analyzed data; and B.F., M.B.B.M., S.A., H.G.B., R.R.S., C.d.l.R., R.S., B.-J.K., A.J.A.M.v.d.V., J.W.M.v.d.M., and M.G.N. wrote the paper.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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    TLR4 polymorphisms, infectious diseases, and evolutionary pressure during migration of modern humans
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    • Vol. 104
    • No. 42
    • pp. 16391-16719

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