Biography:

Abdelbadea Elhassan, graduated from the Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Khartoum in 1998. In 2006 he completed his MSc in molecular biology at the Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum in the field of population genetics. He worked as a teaching assistant and then lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shendi University. He has attended several courses including, Molecular biology techniques, Immunology techniques (cell separation, ELISA, immunoblotting, and immunofluorescence) 2003, Khartoum Winter School of Bioinformatics & statistical Genetics (5th -17th January 2006). Institute of Endemic Diseases, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences (University of Khartoum). Techniques in Molecular Morphology, Imaging, Gene Expression & Behavioural Analysis (20-24 November 2006), Monash University Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. He also participated in several conferences and meetings includes; -11th Biennial Congress of the Southern African Society for Human Genetics combined with the 2nd Annual Meeting of the African Society of Human Genetics

Abstract:

The 5q31 Region in Two African Populations as a Facet of Natural Selection by Infectious Diseases

Cases of extreme natural selection could lead either to rapid fixation or extinction of alleles depending on the population structure and size and the locus concerned will be displaying such drastic features of allele change. We believe that the 5q31 could mirror situation of such extreme natural selection particularly that the region encompasses genes of the type 2 cytokine loci (e.g. IL-4, IL-13, IL-5 and IL-9). We typed four single nucleotide polymorphisms within the genes of IL-4, IL-13, IL-5 and IL-9 in 218 chromosomes in two populations of Hausa and Massalit tribes who have settled recently in an area endemic with various tropical diseases in eastern Sudan. The results suggest the 5q31 region to be under intense selective pressure as indicated by marked heterozygosity independent of LD; difference in heterozygosity, allele, and haplotype frequencies between generations; positive Tajima D values and departure from Hardy Weinberg expectations. The study area is endemic with several infectious diseases including malaria, visceral leishmaniasis and occasional outbreaks of meningitis do occur. Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum though common in the area, occurs mainly with mild clinical symptoms in all ages, which makes it unlikely to account for these indices. The strong selection signals seems to be attributed to the recent outbreaks of visceral leishmaniasis which affected both populations to varying extent.