A study conducted in France by the International Alt/Self Map Consortium shows that the molecular basis of selfish and altruistic behaviour in primates can be linked to quantitative trait loci. Using a number of association methods; they indicated, via preliminary mapping, the presence of an altruist and a selfish locus, both of which occur on the short arm of the X chromosome. Transcriptional studies indicated that there was an unannotated sequence that was under expressed in individuals with hyper-selfishness syndrome and that was over expressed in individuals with hyper-altruism syndrome.
These two states were predicted to be allelic, due to the patterning in expression. Mutations in this sequence supported the theory of the conditions being allelic, gain of function mutations were associated with individuals affected by hyper-altruism syndrome and loss of function mutations were associated with individuals affected by hyper-selfishness syndrome, which shows a strong link between the phenotype and the genotype of individuals. This shows that since there is only a single gene is involved in the expression of these opposite phenotypes, the locus may be a quantitative trait locus. This gene is highly conserved in humans as well as some primates, indicating that this gene has evolved with the Homo genus.
Submitted by: 41185807
References:
International Alt/Self Map Consortium 2007, ‘A same gene for altruism and selfishness in primates’, Medicine Sciences, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 440-444.]
Wikipedia 2007, 'Quantitative Trait Locus', Wikemedia Foundation, Inc., [Online], Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygenic_inheritance
