4 ms·
> Why do humans have such a large mutation load on common genetic variants? This one is answerable. Two reasons. 1. The human population is not in Hardy-Weinb
by danieltillett 8y ago
> Why do humans have such a large mutation load on common genetic variants?
This one is answerable. Two reasons.
1. The human population is not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium since it has expanded so much in the recent human past (agricultural revolution and all that).
2. The human population over the last 10,000 years has experienced very strong natural selection that has carried a lot of deleterious mutations along for the ride.
What is more interesting is why we have so many chromosomal abnormalities - humans have something like 100x the rate of chromosomal abnormalities as other species.