Population distribution of the functional caspase-12 allele

✍ Scribed by Kritika Kachapati; Thomas R. O'Brien; Julie Bergeron; Mingdong Zhang; Michael Dean

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 46 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1059-7794
• DOI: 10.1002/humu.9448

✦ Synopsis

Members of the caspase family can be important for apoptosis or inflammation, but the role of caspase-12 (CASP12 or CSP12) is unclear. Although most humans lack a functional caspase-12, the Csp 12-L variant, previously found only among people of African descent, produces a full-length proenzyme and increases the risk of sepsis. In this study, Csp 12-L allele frequency ranged from 3.6% to 60.7% among populations from sub-Saharan Africa and was also present at low frequency among North African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian populations.