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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

A Multiple Integrated Social Stress Model for Psychiatric Disorders in Female C57BL/6J Mice
Published on: July 15, 2025
Positive and balancing selection on SLC18A1 gene associated with psychiatric disorders and human-unique personality
Daiki X Sato1, Masakado Kawata1
1Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University Sendai 980-8578 Japan.
Abstract:
Maintenance of genetic variants susceptible to psychiatric disorders is one of the intriguing evolutionary enigmas. The present study detects three psychiatric disorder-relevant genes (CLSTN2, FAT1, and SLC18A1) that have been under positive selection during the human evolution. In particular, SLC18A1 (vesicular monoamine transporter 1; VMAT1) gene has a human-unique variant (rs1390938, Thr136Ile), which is associated with bipolar disorders and/or the anxiety-related personality traits. 136Ile shows relatively high (20-61%) frequency in non-African populations, and Tajima's D reports a significant peak around the Thr136Ile site, suggesting that this polymorphism has been positively maintained by balancing selection in non-African populations. Moreover, Coalescent simulations predict that 136Ile originated around 100,000 years ago, the time being generally associated with the Out-of-Africa migration of modern humans. Our study sheds new light on a gene in monoamine pathway as a strong candidate contributing to human-unique psychological traits.
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