Environmental change drives accelerated adaptation through stimulated copy number variation
Copy number variation (CNV) is widespread in human populations, with 5%–10% of the human reference genome showing CNV between normal individuals. CNV of protein-coding genes contributes to multiple disorders, and specific genetic syndromes have been directly attributed to CNV. The pathological effects of CNV imply that gene copy number impacts gene expression, and we have recently shown that changing copy number can directly influence RNA processing.