Social transmission of reproductive behavior increases frequency of inherited disorders in a young-expanding population

The observation of high frequencies of certain inherited disorders in the population of Saguenay–Lac Saint Jean can be explained in terms of the variance and the correlation of effective family size (EFS) from one generation to the next. We have shown this effect by using the branching process approach with real demographic data. When variance of EFS is included in the model, despite its profound effect on mutant allele frequency, any mutant introduced in the population never reaches the known carrier frequencies (between 0.035 and 0.05). It is only when the EFS correlation between generations is introduced into the model that we can explain the rise of the mutant alleles. This correlation is described by a c parameter that reflects the dependency of children’s EFS on their parents’ EFS. The c parameter can be considered to reflect social transmission of demographic behavior. We show that such social transmission dramatically reduces the effective population size. This could explain particular distributions in allele frequencies and unusually high frequency of certain inherited disorders in some human populations.

Characterization of N-Glycans from Arabidopsis. Application to a Fucose-Deficient Mutant1

The structures of glycans N-linked to Arabidopsis proteins have been fully identified. From immuno- and affinodetections on blots, chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and glycosidase sequencing data, we show that Arabidopsis proteins are N-glycosylated by high-mannose-type N-glycans from Man5GlcNAc2 to Man9GlcNAc2, and by xylose- and fucose (Fuc)-containing oligosaccharides. However, complex biantenary structures containing the terminal Lewis a epitope recently reported in the literature (A.-C. Fitchette-Lainé, V. Gomord, M. Cabanes, J.-C. Michalski, M. Saint Macary, B. Foucher, B. Cavalier, C. Hawes, P. Lerouge, and L. Faye [1997] Plant J 12: 1411–1417) were not detected. A similar study was done on the Arabidopsis mur1 mutant, which is affected in the biosynthesis of l-Fuc. In this mutant, one-third of the Fuc residues of the xyloglucan has been reported to be replaced by l-galactose (Gal) (E. Zablackis, W.S. York, M. Pauly, S. Hantus, W.D. Reiter, C.C.S. Chapple, P. Albersheim, and A. Darvill [1996] Science 272: 1808–1810). N-linked glycans from the mutant were identified and their structures were compared with those isolated from the wild-type plants. In about 95% of all N-linked glycans from the mur1 plant, l-Fuc residues were absent and were not replaced by another monosaccharide. However, in the remaining 5%, l-Fuc was found to be replaced by a hexose residue. From nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry data of the mur1 N-glycans, and by analogy with data reported on mur1 xyloglucan, this subpopulation of N-linked glycans was proposed to be l-Gal-containing N-glycans resulting from the replacement of l-Fuc by l-Gal.