Genodynamics: A New Biophysical Approach to Modeling Adaptation in Human Populations

Abstract

Using genodynamics, the Howard University biophysics research and interdisciplinary development group transforms genomic sequence data into genomic energy measures to explore the science of genome variation in population diversity and human biology. Genodynamics utilizes the statistical distribution of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from the Haplotype Map project to mathematically model whole genome-environment interactions in human adaptation to environmental stressors/stimuli by functionally parameterizing the interplay between the biophysical and environmental factors in a quantifiable manner. Our double-blind computer program flagged smooth mathematical function relationships between allelic energies of two SNPs in intron one of the egl-9 family hypoxia inducible factor 1 (EGLN1) and the environmental parameter averaged ancestral annual ultraviolet radiation exposure. EGLN1 is a gene on chromosome 1 known to play an essential role in the regulation of the hypoxia inducible factor pathway. We have demonstrated that our genodynamics approach can quantify, through adaptive forces, the effects that environmental stressors/stimuli have had on patterns of common variation in the human genome and by doing so offer an alternative means of investigating the implications of SNP information dynamics on natural selection in human populations.