Sa. Tishkoff et al., DISTRIBUTION AND FREQUENCY OF A POLYMORPHIC ALU INSERTION AT THE PLASMINOGEN-ACTIVATOR LOCUS IN HUMANS, Human genetics, 97(6), 1996, pp. 759-764
We have investigated the frequency distribution, across a broad range
of geographically dispersed populations, of alleles of the polymorphic
Alu insertion that occurs within the 8th intron of the tissue plasmin
ogen activator gene (PLAT). This Alu is a member of a recently derived
subfamily of Alu elements that has been expanding during human evolut
ion and continues to be transpositionally active. We used a ''populati
on tube'' approach to screen 10 chromosomes from each of 19 human popu
lations for presence or absence of this Alu in the PLAT locus and foun
d that all tested populations are dimorphic for presence/absence of th
is insertion. We show that the previously published EcoRI, HincII, Pst
I, TaqI, and XmnI polymorphisms at the PLAT locus all result from inse
rtion of this Alu and we use both restriction fragment length polymorp
hism and polymerase chain reaction analysis to examine the frequency o
f Alu(+) and Alu(-) alleles in a sample of 1003 individuals from 27 hu
man populations and in 38 nonhuman primates. Nonhuman primates are mon
omorphic for the Alu(-) allele. Human populations differ substantially
in allele frequency, and in several populations both alleles are comm
on. Our results date the insertion event prior to the spread and diver
sification of modem humans.