{"doi":"10.17615/628g-tv17","title":"Evidence for negative selection of gene variants that increase dependence on dietary choline in a Gambian cohort","abstract":"Choline is an essential nutrient, and the amount needed in the diet is modulated by several factors. Given geographical differences in dietary choline intake and disparate frequencies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in choline metabolism genes between ethnic groups, we tested the hypothesis that 3 SNPs that increase dependence on dietary choline would be under negative selection pressure in settings where choline intake is low: choline dehydrogenase (CHDH) rs12676, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 1 (MTHFD1) rs2236225, and phosphatidylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PEMT) rs12325817. Evidence of negative selection was assessed in 2 populations: one in The Gambia, West Africa, where there is historic evidence of a choline-poor diet, and the other in the United States, with a comparatively choline-rich diet. We used 2 independent methods, and confirmation of our hypothesis was sought via a comparison with SNP data from the Maasai, an East African population with a genetic background similar to that of Gambians but with a traditional diet that is higher in choline. Our results show that frequencies of SNPs known to increase dependence on dietary choline are significantly reduced in the low-choline setting of The Gambia. Our findings suggest that adequate intake levels of choline may have to be reevaluated in different ethnic groups and highlight a possible approach for identifying novel functional SNPs under the influence of dietary selective pressure.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2022,"id":311825,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9485,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1008612,"name":"P. Dominguez-Salas","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":526117,"name":"K.-A. da Costa","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":931533,"name":"S.H. Zeisel","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1008613,"name":"S.E. Moore","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1008614,"name":"G. Hellenthal","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1008615,"name":"M.J. Silver","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1008616,"name":"A.M. Prentice","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":679991,"name":"J. Owen","orcid":"0000-0003-3318-9914","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1008617,"name":"B.J. Hennig","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1008611,"name":"K.D. Corbin","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:33:32.327694Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}