Abstract
Knowledge of the rate and pattern of new mutation is critical to the understanding of human disease and evolution. We used extensive autozygosity in a genealogically well-defined population of Hutterites to estimate the human sequence mutation rate over multiple generations. We sequenced whole genomes from 5 parent-offspring trios and identified 44 segments of autozygosity. Using the number of meioses separating each pair of autozygous alleles and the 72 validated heterozygous single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) from 512 Mb of autozygous DNA, we obtained an SNV mutation rate of 1.20 × 10-8 (95% confidence interval 0.89-1.43 × 10-8) mutations per base pair per generation. The mutation rate for bases within CpG dinucleotides (9.72 × 10-8) was 9.5-fold that of non-CpG bases, and there was strong evidence (P = 2.67 × 10-4) for a paternal bias in the origin of new mutations (85% paternal). We observed a non-uniform distribution of heterozygous SNVs (both newly identified and known) in the autozygous segments (P = 0.001), which is suggestive of mutational hotspots or sites of long-range gene conversion.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1277-1281 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Nature genetics |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Genetics