Consistent with the hypothesis that selection drives the enrichment of CNVRs in particular populations, the alpha thalassaemia deletion reveals signatures of selection [40] and is selected to high frequencies in malaria endemic areas because it confers protection against infection by the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium [41] and in our data the KIR locus had both SNP signatures of selection and SNP haplotypes tagging CNV. Here, KIR3DL1 is linked to infection.