1
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Nava A, Lugli F, Lemmers S, Cerrito P, Mahoney P, Bondioli L, Müller W. Reading children's teeth to reconstruct life history and the evolution of human cooperation and cognition: The role of dental enamel microstructure and chemistry. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 163:105745. [PMID: 38825260 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Revised: 05/25/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/04/2024]
Abstract
Studying infants in the past is crucial for understanding the evolution of human life history and the evolution of cooperation, cognition, and communication. An infant's growth, health, and mortality can provide information about the dynamics and structure of a population, their cultural practices, and the adaptive capacity of a community. Skeletal remains provide one way of accessing this information for humans recovered prior to the historical periods. Teeth in particular, are retrospective archives of information that can be accessed through morphological, micromorphological, and biogeochemical methods. This review discusses how the microanatomy and formation of teeth, and particularly enamel, serve as archives of somatic growth, stress, and the environment. Examining their role in the broader context of human evolution, we discuss dental biogeochemistry and emphasize how the incremental growth of tooth microstructure facilitates the reconstruction of temporal data related to health, diet, mobility, and stress in past societies. The review concludes by considering tooth microstructure as a biomarker and the potential clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessia Nava
- Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, via Caserta 6, Rome 00161, Italy.
| | - Federico Lugli
- Institut of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Department of Chemical and Geological Science, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Giuseppe Campi, 103, Modena 41125, Italy
| | - Simone Lemmers
- Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., AREA Science Park, s.s. 14 km 163,500, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Paola Cerrito
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Patrick Mahoney
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Giles Ln, Giles Ln, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UK
| | - Luca Bondioli
- Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua, Piazza Capitaniato, 7, Padua 35139, Italy
| | - Wolfgang Müller
- Institut of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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2
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Cooke NP, Murray M, Cassidy LM, Mattiangeli V, Okazaki K, Kasai K, Gakuhari T, Bradley DG, Nakagome S. Genomic imputation of ancient Asian populations contrasts local adaptation in pre- and post-agricultural Japan. iScience 2024; 27:110050. [PMID: 38883821 PMCID: PMC11176660 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Early modern humans lived as hunter-gatherers for millennia before agriculture, yet the genetic adaptations of these populations remain a mystery. Here, we investigate selection in the ancient hunter-gatherer-fisher Jomon and contrast pre- and post-agricultural adaptation in the Japanese archipelago. Building on the successful validation of imputation with ancient Asian genomes, we identify selection signatures in the Jomon, particularly robust signals from KITLG variants, which may have influenced dark pigmentation evolution. The Jomon lacks well-known adaptive variants (EDAR, ADH1B, and ALDH2), marking their emergence after the advent of farming in the archipelago. Notably, the EDAR and ADH1B variants were prevalent in the archipelago 1,300 years ago, whereas the ALDH2 variant could have emerged later due to its absence in other ancient genomes. Overall, our study underpins local adaptation unique to the Jomon population, which in turn sheds light on post-farming selection that continues to shape contemporary Asian populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niall P Cooke
- School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Lara M Cassidy
- Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Kenji Okazaki
- Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, Japan
| | - Kenji Kasai
- Toyama Prefectural Center for Archaeological Operations, Toyama, Japan
| | - Takashi Gakuhari
- Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
| | - Daniel G Bradley
- Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Shigeki Nakagome
- School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
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3
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Pohl H, Neumeier MS, Hänsel M, Wegener S. The prevalence of head and face pain decreased from 1997 to 2017 in Switzerland. Pain Pract 2024; 24:709-716. [PMID: 38251757 DOI: 10.1111/papr.13346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Pain in the head and the face is highly prevalent but may have changed during the past years. This study aimed to analyze changes in the prevalence of pain in the head and the face in Switzerland from 1997 to 2017. METHODS This is a secondary analysis of data collected in the Swiss Health Surveys of 1997-2017. Included persons were 15 years and older. Besides studying demographic data, we analyze the item assessing the presence of "headache, pressure in the head, or facial pain" during the past 4 weeks. Percentages with their Wilson confidence intervals are reported for each response option of categorical variables. Moreover, we calculate the age-standardized number of persons affected by the pain. RESULTS While 41% reported head and face pain in 1997, the proportion dropped to 31% in 2017. There was a decrease of 19.5% in women and 29.4% in men; after age standardization, the decrease was 16.5% in women and 25.4% in men. The most considerable numerical changes in the percentages of women with pain occurred in those aged 55-69 and 85 and above. In men, the changes were not limited to specific age groups. CONCLUSIONS The proportion of people reporting headaches, pressure in the head, or facial pain has dropped in Switzerland from 1997 to 2017. However, in women, the prevalence diminished more strongly and consistently in the middle-aged and the elderly than in the young.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heiko Pohl
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Martin Hänsel
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Susanne Wegener
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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4
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Kitayama S, Salvador CE. Cultural Psychology: Beyond East and West. Annu Rev Psychol 2024; 75:495-526. [PMID: 37585666 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-021723-063333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/18/2023]
Abstract
Research in cultural psychology over the last three decades has revealed the profound influence of culture on cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes shaping individuals into active agents. This article aims to show cultural psychology's promise in three key steps. First, we review four notable cultural dimensions believed to underlie cultural variations: independent versus interdependent self, individualism versus collectivism, tightness versus looseness of social norms, and relational mobility. Second, we examine how ecology and geography shape human activities and give rise to organized systems of cultural practices and meanings, called eco-cultural complexes. In turn, the eco-cultural complex of each zone is instrumental in shaping a wide range of psychological processes, revealing a psychological diversity that extends beyond the scope of the current East-West literature. Finally, we examine some of the non-Western cultural zones present today, including Arab, East Asian, Latin American, and South Asian zones, and discuss how they may have contributed, to varying degrees, to the formation of the contemporary Western cultural zone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shinobu Kitayama
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA;
| | - Cristina E Salvador
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA;
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5
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M'charek A. Curious about race: Generous methods and modes of knowing in practice. SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 2023; 53:826-849. [PMID: 37916761 DOI: 10.1177/03063127231201178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2023]
Abstract
What is race? And how does it figure in different scientific practices? To answer these questions, I suggest that we need to know race differently. Rather than defining race or looking for one conclusive answer to what it is, I propose methods that are open-ended, that allow us to follow race around, while remaining curious as to what it is. I suggest that we pursue generous methods. Drawing on empirical examples of forensic identification technologies, I argue that the slipperiness of race-the way race and its politics inexorably shift and change-cannot be fully grasped as an 'object multiple'. Race, I show, is not race: The same word refers to different phenomena. To grasp this, I introduce the notion of the affinity concept. Drawing on the history of race, along with contemporary work in forensic genetics, the affinity concept helps us articulate how race indexes three different scientific realities: race as object, race as method, and race as theory. These three different, yet interconnected realities, contribute to race's slipperiness as well as its virulence.
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6
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Tanaka T, Hayakawa T, Teshima KM. Power of neutrality tests for detecting natural selection. G3 (BETHESDA, MD.) 2023; 13:jkad161. [PMID: 37481468 PMCID: PMC10542275 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 06/09/2023] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
Detection of natural selection is one of the main interests in population genetics. Thus, many tests have been developed for detecting natural selection using genomic data. Although it is recognized that the utility of tests depends on several evolutionary factors, such as the timing of selection, strength of selection, frequency of selected alleles, demographic events, and initial frequency of selected allele when selection started acting (softness of selection), the relationships between such evolutionary factors and the power of tests are not yet entirely clear. In this study, we investigated the power of 4 tests: Tajiama's D, Fay and Wu's H, relative extended haplotype homozygosity (rEHH), and integrated haplotype score (iHS), under ranges of evolutionary parameters and demographic models to quantitatively expand the understanding of approaches for detecting selection. The results show that each test detects selection within a limited parameter range, and there are still wide ranges of parameters for which none of these tests work effectively. In addition, the parameter space in which each test shows the highest power overlaps the empirical results of previous research. These results indicate that our present perspective of adaptation is limited to only a part of actual adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomotaka Tanaka
- Graduate School of System Life Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
| | - Toshiyuki Hayakawa
- Graduate School of System Life Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
- Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
| | - Kosuke M Teshima
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
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7
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Egeland J. Evolutionary Psychology and Normal Science: in Search of a Unifying Research Program. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2023; 57:390-411. [PMID: 36474009 PMCID: PMC10113342 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-022-09736-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Why are there so many controversies in evolutionary psychology? Using a couple of concepts from philosophy of science, this paper argues that evolutionary psychology has not reached the stage of mature, normal science, since it does not currently have a unifying research program that guides individual scientists working in the discipline. The argument goes against claims made by certain proponents and opponents of evolutionary psychology, and it is supported by discussion of several examples. The paper notes that just because evolutionary psychology has not reached the stage of normal science, the discipline is nevertheless a source of many progressive theoretical developments and interesting empirical discoveries.
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8
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Humans and the Olfactory Environment: A Case of Gene-Culture Coevolution? PSYCH 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/psych4020027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
As hunter-gatherers, humans used their sense of smell to identify plants and animals, to find their way within a foraging area, or to distinguish each other by gender, age, kinship, or social dominance. Because women gathered while men hunted, the sexes evolved different sensitivities to plant and animal odors. They also ended up emitting different odors. Male odors served to intimidate rival males or assert dominance. With the rise of farming and sedentism, humans no longer needed their sense of smell to find elusive food sources or to orient themselves within a large area. Odors now came from a narrower range of plants and animals. Meanwhile, body odor was removed through bathing to facilitate interactions in enclosed spaces. This new phenotype became the template for the evolution of a new genotype: less sensitivity to odors of wild plants and animals, lower emissions of male odors, and a more negative response to them. Further change came with the development of fragrances to reodorize the body and the home. This new olfactory environment coevolved with the ability to represent odors in the mind, notably for storage in memory, for vicarious re-experiencing, or for sharing with other people through speech and writing.
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9
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Palma-Morales M, Mateos A, Rodríguez J, Casuso RA, Huertas JR. Food made us humans: Recent genetic variability and its relevance 2 to the current distribution of macronutrients 3. Nutrition 2022; 101:111702. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nut.2022.111702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2021] [Revised: 03/09/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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10
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Migliano AB, Vinicius L. The origins of human cumulative culture: from the foraging niche to collective intelligence. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200317. [PMID: 34894737 PMCID: PMC8666907 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Various studies have investigated cognitive mechanisms underlying culture in humans and other great apes. However, the adaptive reasons for the evolution of uniquely sophisticated cumulative culture in our species remain unclear. We propose that the cultural capabilities of humans are the evolutionary result of a stepwise transition from the ape-like lifestyle of earlier hominins to the foraging niche still observed in extant hunter-gatherers. Recent ethnographic, archaeological and genetic studies have provided compelling evidence that the components of the foraging niche (social egalitarianism, sexual and social division of labour, extensive co-residence and cooperation with unrelated individuals, multilocality, fluid sociality and high between-camp mobility) engendered a unique multilevel social structure where the cognitive mechanisms underlying cultural evolution (high-fidelity transmission, innovation, teaching, recombination, ratcheting) evolved as adaptations. Therefore, multilevel sociality underlies a 'social ratchet' or irreversible task specialization splitting the burden of cultural knowledge across individuals, which may explain why human collective intelligence is uniquely able to produce sophisticated cumulative culture. The foraging niche perspective may explain why a complex gene-culture dual inheritance system evolved uniquely in humans and interprets the cultural, morphological and genetic origins of Homo sapiens as a process of recombination of innovations appearing in differentiated but interconnected populations. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lucio Vinicius
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland
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11
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Koole SL. The Homeostatic Ego: Self-Enhancement as a Biological Adaptation. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2021.2007701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sander L. Koole
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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12
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Laval G, Patin E, Boutillier P, Quintana-Murci L. Sporadic occurrence of recent selective sweeps from standing variation in humans as revealed by an approximate Bayesian computation approach. Genetics 2021; 219:6377789. [PMID: 34849862 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyab161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
During their dispersals over the last 100,000 years, modern humans have been exposed to a large variety of environments, resulting in genetic adaptation. While genome-wide scans for the footprints of positive Darwinian selection have increased knowledge of genes and functions potentially involved in human local adaptation, they have globally produced evidence of a limited contribution of selective sweeps in humans. Conversely, studies based on machine learning algorithms suggest that recent sweeps from standing variation are widespread in humans, an observation that has been recently questioned. Here, we sought to formally quantify the number of recent selective sweeps in humans, by leveraging approximate Bayesian computation and whole-genome sequence data. Our computer simulations revealed suitable ABC estimations, regardless of the frequency of the selected alleles at the onset of selection and the completion of sweeps. Under a model of recent selection from standing variation, we inferred that an average of 68 (from 56 to 79) and 140 (from 94 to 198) sweeps occurred over the last 100,000 years of human history, in African and Eurasian populations, respectively. The former estimation is compatible with human adaptation rates estimated since divergence with chimps, and reveals numbers of sweeps per generation per site in the range of values estimated in Drosophila. Our results confirm the rarity of selective sweeps in humans and show a low contribution of sweeps from standing variation to recent human adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guillaume Laval
- Human Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR 2000, CNRS, Paris 75015, France
| | - Etienne Patin
- Human Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR 2000, CNRS, Paris 75015, France
| | - Pierre Boutillier
- Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Lluis Quintana-Murci
- Human Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Institut Pasteur, UMR 2000, CNRS, Paris 75015, France.,Human Genomics and Evolution, Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France
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13
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Zhu C, Talhelm T, Li Y, Chen G, Zhu J, Wang J. Relationship between rice farming and polygenic scores potentially linked to agriculture in China. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:210382. [PMID: 34457340 PMCID: PMC8371358 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Following domestication in the lower Yangtze River valley 9400 years ago, rice farming spread throughout China and changed lifestyle patterns among Neolithic populations. Here, we report evidence that the advent of rice domestication and cultivation may have shaped humans not only culturally but also genetically. Leveraging recent findings from molecular genetics, we construct a number of polygenic scores (PGSs) of behavioural traits and examine their associations with rice cultivation based on a sample of 4101 individuals recently collected from mainland China. A total of nine polygenic traits and genotypes are investigated in this study, including PGSs of height, body mass index, depression, time discounting, reproduction, educational attainment, risk preference, ADH1B rs1229984 and ALDH2 rs671. Two-stage least-squares estimates of the county-level percentage of cultivated land devoted to paddy rice on the PGS of age at first birth (b = -0.029, p = 0.021) and ALDH2 rs671 (b = 0.182, p < 0.001) are both statistically significant and robust to a wide range of potential confounds and alternative explanations. These findings imply that rice farming may influence human evolution in relatively recent human history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Zhu
- College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China
- Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP), China Agricultural University, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China
- Beijing Food Safety Policy and Strategy Research Base, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100081, People's Republic of China
| | - Thomas Talhelm
- Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Yingxiang Li
- WeGene, Shenzhen Zaozhidao Technology Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China
| | - Gang Chen
- WeGene, Shenzhen Zaozhidao Technology Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China
- Hunan Provincial Key Lab on Bioinformatics, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China
| | - Jiong Zhu
- Institute of Economics, School of Economics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China
- Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University, Xiamen, People's Republic of China
| | - Jun Wang
- School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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14
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Ben-Dor M, Sirtoli R, Barkai R. The evolution of the human trophic level during the Pleistocene. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2021; 175 Suppl 72:27-56. [PMID: 33675083 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Revised: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The human trophic level (HTL) during the Pleistocene and its degree of variability serve, explicitly or tacitly, as the basis of many explanations for human evolution, behavior, and culture. Previous attempts to reconstruct the HTL have relied heavily on an analogy with recent hunter-gatherer groups' diets. In addition to technological differences, recent findings of substantial ecological differences between the Pleistocene and the Anthropocene cast doubt regarding that analogy's validity. Surprisingly little systematic evolution-guided evidence served to reconstruct HTL. Here, we reconstruct the HTL during the Pleistocene by reviewing evidence for the impact of the HTL on the biological, ecological, and behavioral systems derived from various existing studies. We adapt a paleobiological and paleoecological approach, including evidence from human physiology and genetics, archaeology, paleontology, and zoology, and identified 25 sources of evidence in total. The evidence shows that the trophic level of the Homo lineage that most probably led to modern humans evolved from a low base to a high, carnivorous position during the Pleistocene, beginning with Homo habilis and peaking in Homo erectus. A reversal of that trend appears in the Upper Paleolithic, strengthening in the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, and culminating with the advent of agriculture. We conclude that it is possible to reach a credible reconstruction of the HTL without relying on a simple analogy with recent hunter-gatherers' diets. The memory of an adaptation to a trophic level that is embedded in modern humans' biology in the form of genetics, metabolism, and morphology is a fruitful line of investigation of past HTLs, whose potential we have only started to explore.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miki Ben-Dor
- Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | | | - Ran Barkai
- Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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15
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Kissel M, Fuentes A. The ripples of modernity: How we can extend paleoanthropology with the extended evolutionary synthesis. Evol Anthropol 2021; 30:84-98. [PMID: 33547734 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2019] [Revised: 09/05/2020] [Accepted: 01/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Contemporary understandings of paleoanthropological data illustrate that the search for a line defining, or a specific point designating, "modern human" is problematic. Here we lend support to the argument for the need to look for patterns in the paleoanthropological record that indicate how multiple evolutionary processes intersected to form the human niche, a concept critical to assessing the development and processes involved in the emergence of a contemporary human phenotype. We suggest that incorporating key elements of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) into our endeavors offers a better and more integrative toolkit for modeling and assessing the evolution of the genus Homo. To illustrate our points, we highlight how aspects of the genetic exchanges, morphology, and material culture of the later Pleistocene complicate the concept of "modern" human behavior and suggest that multiple evolutionary patterns, processes, and pathways intersected to form the human niche.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Kissel
- Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA
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16
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Boutry J, Dujon AM, Gerard AL, Tissot S, Macdonald N, Schultz A, Biro PA, Beckmann C, Hamede R, Hamilton DG, Giraudeau M, Ujvari B, Thomas F. Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Anticancer Adaptations. iScience 2020; 23:101716. [PMID: 33241195 PMCID: PMC7674277 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Cellular cheating leading to cancers exists in all branches of multicellular life, favoring the evolution of adaptations to avoid or suppress malignant progression, and/or to alleviate its fitness consequences. Ecologists have until recently largely neglected the importance of cancer cells for animal ecology, presumably because they did not consider either the potential ecological or evolutionary consequences of anticancer adaptations. Here, we review the diverse ways in which the evolution of anticancer adaptations has significantly constrained several aspects of the evolutionary ecology of multicellular organisms at the cell, individual, population, species, and ecosystem levels and suggest some avenues for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justine Boutry
- CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224–CNRS 5290–Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Antoine M. Dujon
- CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224–CNRS 5290–Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France
| | - Anne-Lise Gerard
- CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224–CNRS 5290–Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Sophie Tissot
- CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224–CNRS 5290–Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Nick Macdonald
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France
| | - Aaron Schultz
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France
| | - Peter A. Biro
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France
| | - Christa Beckmann
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France
- School of Science, Western Sydney University, Parramatta, NSW, Australia
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
| | - Rodrigo Hamede
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
| | - David G. Hamilton
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
| | - Mathieu Giraudeau
- CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224–CNRS 5290–Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Beata Ujvari
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC, Australia France
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
| | - Frédéric Thomas
- CREEC/CANECEV (CREES), MIVEGEC, Unité Mixte de Recherches, IRD 224–CNRS 5290–Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
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17
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Fabiano J. Technological moral enhancement or traditional moral progress? Why not both? JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS 2020; 46:405-411. [PMID: 32229591 DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2019-105915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2019] [Revised: 02/11/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
A new argument has been made against moral enhancement by authors who are otherwise in favour of human enhancement. Additionally, they share the same evolutionary toolkit for analysing human traits as well as the belief that our current morality is unfit to deal with modern problems, such as climate change and nuclear proliferation. The argument is put forward by Buchanan and Powell and states that other paths to moral progress are enough to deal with these problems. Given the likely costs and risks involved with developing moral enhancement, this argument implies moral enhancement is an unpromising enterprise. After mentioning proposed solutions to such modern problems, I will argue that moral enhancement would help implement any of them. I will then detail Buchanan and Powell's new argument disfavouring moral enhancement and argue that it makes too bold assumptions about the efficacy of traditional moral progress. For instance, it overlooks how that progress was to achieve even in relatively successful cases such as the abolition of slavery. Traditional moral progress is likely to require assistance from non-traditional means in order to face new challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joao Fabiano
- Department of Philosophy, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
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18
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Williams AC, Hill LJ. The 4 D's of Pellagra and Progress. Int J Tryptophan Res 2020; 13:1178646920910159. [PMID: 32327922 PMCID: PMC7163231 DOI: 10.1177/1178646920910159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2019] [Accepted: 02/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Nicotinamide homeostasis is a candidate common denominator to explain smooth transitions, whether demographic, epidemiological or economic. This 'NAD world', dependent on hydrogen-based energy, is not widely recognised as it is neither measured nor viewed from a sufficiently multi-genomic or historical perspective. Reviewing the importance of meat and nicotinamide balances during our co-evolution, recent history suggests that populations only modernise and age well with low fertility on a suitably balanced diet. Imbalances on the low meat side lead to an excess of infectious disease, short lives and boom-bust demographics. On the high side, meat has led to an excess of degenerative, allergic and metabolic disease and low fertility. A 'Goldilocks' diet derived from mixed and sustainable farming (preserving the topsoil) allows for high intellectual capital, height and good health with controlled population growth resulting in economic growth and prosperity. Implementing meat equity worldwide could lead to progress for future generations on 'spaceship' earth by establishing control over population quality, thermostat and biodiversity, if it is not already too late.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian C Williams
- Department of Neurology, University
Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
| | - Lisa J Hill
- School of Biomedical Sciences, Institute
of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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19
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Abstract
Despite recent rapid advances in medical knowledge that have improved survival, conventional medical science's understanding of human health and disease relies heavily on people of European descent living in contemporary urban industrialized environments. Given that modern conditions in high-income countries differ widely in terms of lifestyle and exposures compared to those experienced by billions of people and all our ancestors over several hundred thousand years, this narrow approach to the human body and health is very limiting. We argue that preventing and treating chronic diseases of aging and other mismatch diseases will require both expanding study design to sample diverse populations and contexts, and fully incorporating evolutionary perspectives. In this paper, we first assess the extent of biased representation of industrialized populations in high profile, international biomedical journals, then compare patterns of morbidity and health across world regions. We also compare demographic rates and the force of selection between subsistence and industrialized populations to reflect on the changes in how selection operates on fertility and survivorship across the lifespan. We argue that, contrary to simplistic misguided solutions like the PaleoDiet, the hypothesis of evolutionary mismatch needs critical consideration of population history, evolutionary biology and evolved reaction norms to prevent and treat diseases. We highlight the critical value of broader sampling by considering the effects of three key exposures that have radically changed over the past century in many parts of the world-pathogen burden, reproductive effort and physical activity-on autoimmune, cardiometabolic and other mismatch diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael D Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
| | - Daniel E Lieberman
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
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20
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Ronay R, Maddux WW, von Hippel W. Inequality rules: Resource distribution and the evolution of dominance- and prestige-based leadership. THE LEADERSHIP QUARTERLY 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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21
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Nishi A, Alexander M, Fowler JH, Christakis NA. Assortative mating at loci under recent natural selection in humans. Biosystems 2020; 187:104040. [PMID: 31585150 PMCID: PMC7471337 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2019.104040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2019] [Revised: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Genetic correlation between mates at specific loci can greatly alter the evolutionary trajectory of a species. Genetic assortative mating has been documented in humans, but its existence beyond population stratification (shared ancestry) has been a matter of controversy. Here, we develop a method to measure assortative mating across the genome at 1,044,854 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), controlling for population stratification and cohort-specific cryptic relatedness. Using data on 1683 human couples from two data sources, we find evidence for both assortative and disassortative mating at specific, discernible loci throughout the entire genome. Then, using the composite of multiple signals (CMS) score, we also show that the group of SNPs exhibiting the most assortativity has been under stronger recent positive selection. Simulations using realistic inputs confirm that assortative mating might indeed affect changes in allele frequency over time. These results suggest that genetic assortative mating may be speeding up evolution in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akihiro Nishi
- Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
| | - Marcus Alexander
- Yale Institute for Network Science, Yale University, CT 06520, USA.
| | - James H Fowler
- Division of Medical Genetics and Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92103, USA.
| | - Nicholas A Christakis
- Yale Institute for Network Science, Yale University, CT 06520, USA; Department of Sociology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Statistics & Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
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22
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Clark AD, Deffner D, Laland K, Odling-Smee J, Endler J. Niche Construction Affects the Variability and Strength of Natural Selection. Am Nat 2020; 195:16-30. [DOI: 10.1086/706196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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23
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Thomas F, Giraudeau M, Renaud F, Ujvari B, Roche B, Pujol P, Raymond M, Lemaitre JF, Alvergne A. Can postfertile life stages evolve as an anticancer mechanism? PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000565. [PMID: 31805037 PMCID: PMC6917346 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Why a postfertile stage has evolved in females of some species has puzzled evolutionary biologists for over 50 years. We propose that existing adaptive explanations have underestimated in their formulation an important parameter operating both at the specific and the individual levels: the balance between cancer risks and cancer defenses. During their life, most multicellular organisms naturally accumulate oncogenic processes in their body. In parallel, reproduction, notably the pregnancy process in mammals, exacerbates the progression of existing tumors in females. When, for various ecological or evolutionary reasons, anticancer defenses are too weak, given cancer risk, older females could not pursue their reproduction without triggering fatal metastatic cancers, nor even maintain a normal reproductive physiology if the latter also promotes the growth of existing oncogenic processes, e.g., hormone-dependent malignancies. At least until stronger anticancer defenses are selected for in these species, females could achieve higher inclusive fitness by ceasing their reproduction and/or going through menopause (assuming that these traits are easier to select than anticancer defenses), thereby limiting the risk of premature death due to metastatic cancers. Because relatively few species experience such an evolutionary mismatch between anticancer defenses and cancer risks, the evolution of prolonged life after reproduction could also be a rare, potentially transient, anticancer adaptation in the animal kingdom.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frédéric Thomas
- Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer/Centre de Recherches en Ecologie et Evolution de la Santé, Unité Mixte de Recherches, Institut de Recherches pour le Développement 224-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Mathieu Giraudeau
- Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer/Centre de Recherches en Ecologie et Evolution de la Santé, Unité Mixte de Recherches, Institut de Recherches pour le Développement 224-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - François Renaud
- Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer/Centre de Recherches en Ecologie et Evolution de la Santé, Unité Mixte de Recherches, Institut de Recherches pour le Développement 224-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Beata Ujvari
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria, Australia
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Benjamin Roche
- Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer/Centre de Recherches en Ecologie et Evolution de la Santé, Unité Mixte de Recherches, Institut de Recherches pour le Développement 224-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- Unité mixte internationale de Modélisation Mathématique et Informatique des Systèmes Complexes, Unité Mixte de Recherches, Institut de Recherches pour le développement/Sorbonne Université, France
- Departamento de Etología, Fauna Silvestre y Animales de Laboratorio, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, México
| | - Pascal Pujol
- Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer/Centre de Recherches en Ecologie et Evolution de la Santé, Unité Mixte de Recherches, Institut de Recherches pour le Développement 224-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5290-Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- CHU Arnaud de Villeneuve, Montpellier, France
| | - Michel Raymond
- ISEM, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-François Lemaitre
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité mixte de recherche 5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Université Lyon 1 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Alexandra Alvergne
- ISEM, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, France
- Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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24
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Abstract
For more than 50 years, biological anthropology has argued against the use of the biological race concept. Despite such efforts, aspects of the concept remain in circulation within society and within the discipline itself. As commonly articulated, anthropology's rejection of the biological race concept lacks an evolutionarily based explanatory grounding. Biological patterns of variation in living humans do not map onto commonly utilized categorizations of race, but this knowledge does not explain why human evolution has not produced such structures. This article attempts to offer one such explanation by constructing a biocultural framing of race around ancestry. By examining ancestry through two related lenses, genealogical and genetic, it is shown that the coherence of race as a biological concept has been disrupted by demographic changes in our recent evolutionary past. The biological construction of race is invalid not because it is impossible but because evolutionary forces have actively worked against such patterns in our evolutionary past.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam P. Van Arsdale
- Department of Anthropology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481, USA
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25
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Chekalin E, Rubanovich A, Tatarinova TV, Kasianov A, Bender N, Chekalina M, Staub K, Koepke N, Rühli F, Bruskin S, Morozova I. Changes in Biological Pathways During 6,000 Years of Civilization in Europe. Mol Biol Evol 2019; 36:127-140. [PMID: 30376122 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msy201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The beginning of civilization was a turning point in human evolution. With increasing separation from the natural environment, mankind stimulated new adaptive reactions in response to new environmental factors. In this paper, we describe direct signs of these reactions in the European population during the past 6,000 years. By comparing whole-genome data between Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals and modern Europeans, we revealed biological pathways that are significantly differently enriched in nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms in these two groups and which therefore could be shaped by cultural practices during the past six millennia. They include metabolic transformations, immune response, signal transduction, physical activity, sensory perception, reproduction, and cognitive functions. We demonstrated that these processes were influenced by different types of natural selection. We believe that our study opens new perspectives for more detailed investigations about when and how civilization has been modifying human genomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evgeny Chekalin
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexandr Rubanovich
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Tatiana V Tatarinova
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Biology, University of La Verne, La Verne, CA.,A. A. Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Fundamental Biology and Biotechnology, Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
| | - Artem Kasianov
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.,Center for Data-Intensive Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Nicole Bender
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Marina Chekalina
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Kaspar Staub
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Nikola Koepke
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Frank Rühli
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sergey Bruskin
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Irina Morozova
- Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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26
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Abstract
There is a large amount of evidence that groups differ in average cognitive ability. The hereditarian hypothesis states that these differences are partly or substantially explained by genetics. Despite being a positive claim about the world, this hypothesis is frequently equated with racism, and scholars who defend it are frequently denounced as racists. Yet equating the hereditarian hypothesis with racism is a logical fallacy. The present article identifies ten common arguments for why the hereditarian hypothesis is racist and demonstrates that each one is fallacious. The article concludes that society will be better served if the hereditarian hypothesis is treated the same way as any other scientific claim—critically, but dispassionately.
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27
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Abstract
Rushton and Jensen argued that cognitive ability differs between human populations. But why are such differences expectable? Their answer: as modern humans spread out of Africa and into northern Eurasia, they entered colder and more seasonal climates that selected for the ability to plan ahead, in order to store food, make clothes, and build shelters for winter. This cold winter theory is supported by research on Paleolithic humans and recent hunter-gatherers. Tools become more diverse and complex as effective temperature decreases, apparently because food has to be obtained during limited periods and over large areas. There is also more storage of food and fuel and greater use of untended traps and snares. Finally, shelters have to be sturdier, and clothing more cold-resistant. The resulting cognitive demands are met primarily by women because the lack of opportunities for food gathering pushes them into more cognitively demanding tasks, like garment making, needlework, weaving, leatherworking, pottery, and kiln operation. The northern tier of Paleolithic Eurasia thus produced the “Original Industrial Revolution”—an explosion of creativity that preadapted its inhabitants for later developments, i.e., farming, more complex technology and social organization, and an increasingly future-oriented culture. Over time, these humans would spread south, replacing earlier populations that could less easily exploit the possibilities of the new cultural environment. As this environment developed further, it selected for further increases in cognitive ability. Indeed, mean intelligence seems to have risen during recorded history at temperate latitudes in Europe and East Asia. There is thus no unified theory for the evolution of human intelligence. A key stage was adaptation to cold winters during the Paleolithic, but much happened later.
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28
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Letsinger AC, Granados JZ, Little SE, Lightfoot JT. Alleles associated with physical activity levels are estimated to be older than anatomically modern humans. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0216155. [PMID: 31034533 PMCID: PMC6488090 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2018] [Accepted: 04/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the estimated mutation age and conservation of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with physical activity (PA) in humans. All human SNPs found to be significantly associated with PA levels in the literature were cross-referenced with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Grand Opportunity Exome Sequencing Project to find estimated African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) mutation age. As a secondary measure of mutation age, SNPs were searched for in Hawk's mutation age prediction database which utilizes linkage equilibrium. To determine conservation among hominids, all SNPs were searched in the University of California, Santa Cruz Genome Browser, which contains Neanderthal and chimpanzee reference genomes. Six of the 104 SNPs associated with PA regulation were exon-located missense variants found in IFNAR2, PPARGC1A, PML, CTBP2, IL5RA, and APOE genes. The remaining 98 SNPs were located in non-protein coding regions. Average AA and EA estimated mutation age of the exon-located SNPs were 478.4 ± 327.5 kya and 542.1 ± 369.4 kya, respectively. There were four selective sweeps (suggestive of strong positive selection) of SNPs in humans when compared to Neanderthal or chimpanzee genomes. Exon-located PA candidate SNPs are older than the hypothesized emergence of anatomically modern humans. However, 95% of PA associated SNPs are found in intron and intergenic location. Across all SNPs, there seems to be a high level of conservation of alleles between humans, Neanderthals, and chimpanzees. However, the presence of four selective sweeps suggests there were selection pressures or drift unique to Homo sapiens that influenced the development of mutations associated with PA regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayland C. Letsinger
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States of America
| | - Jorge Z. Granados
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States of America
| | - Sarah E. Little
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States of America
| | - J. Timothy Lightfoot
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States of America
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29
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Richerson PJ. An integrated bayesian theory of phenotypic flexibility. Behav Processes 2019; 161:54-64. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2017] [Revised: 02/02/2018] [Accepted: 02/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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30
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Nadal M, Chatterjee A. Neuroaesthetics and art's diversity and universality. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2018; 10:e1487. [DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2018] [Revised: 09/19/2018] [Accepted: 10/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marcos Nadal
- Department of Psychology University of the Balearic Islands Palma de Mallorca Spain
| | - Anjan Chatterjee
- Department of Neurology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania
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31
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Jacobson NC, Roche MJ. Current evolutionary adaptiveness of anxiety: Extreme phenotypes of anxiety predict increased fertility across multiple generations. J Psychiatr Res 2018; 106:82-90. [PMID: 30296705 PMCID: PMC6219631 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Revised: 09/12/2018] [Accepted: 10/01/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Although recent research has begun to examine the impact of elevated anxiety on evolutionary fitness, no prior research has examined anxiety across a continuum. Such research is important as the effect of traits across a continuum on fertility hold important implications for the levels and distribution of the traits in later generations. METHOD In a three-generational sample (N = 2657) the linear and quadratic relationship between anxiety and the number of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren 15 years later was examined. RESULTS The findings suggested that anxiety had a positive quadratic relationship with the number of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren 15 years later. These relationships were not significantly moderated by sex. Moreover, most of the variance between anxiety and the number of great-grandchildren was explained by anxiety's influence on the number of children and grandchildren, as opposed to anxiety having an independent direct impact on the number of great-grandchildren. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that extreme values from the mean anxiety are associated with increased evolutionary fitness within the modern environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas C Jacobson
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, The Pennsylvania State University, United States.
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32
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Milella M, Betz BJ, Knüsel CJ, Larsen CS, Dori I. Population density and developmental stress in the Neolithic: A diachronic study of dental fluctuating asymmetry at Çatalhöyük (Turkey, 7,100-5,950 BC). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2018; 167:737-749. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2018] [Revised: 07/18/2018] [Accepted: 07/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marco Milella
- Department of Anthropology; University of Zurich; Zurich Switzerland
| | - Barbara J. Betz
- Department of Anthropology, 4034 Smith Laboratory; The Ohio State University; Columbus Ohio
| | | | - Clark Spencer Larsen
- Department of Anthropology, 4034 Smith Laboratory; The Ohio State University; Columbus Ohio
| | - Irene Dori
- UMR 5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux; Pessac France
- Department of Biology; Laboratory of Anthropology, University of Florence; Florence Italy
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33
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Colagè I, d'Errico F. Culture: The Driving Force of Human Cognition. Top Cogn Sci 2018; 12:654-672. [DOI: 10.1111/tops.12372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2018] [Revised: 06/20/2018] [Accepted: 06/22/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Colagè
- Faculty of Philosophy Pontifical Antonianum University
- DISF Centre Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
| | - Francesco d'Errico
- UMR‐CNRS 5199 de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA) Université de Bordeaux
- SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE) University of Bergen
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34
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Abstract
In this article, we attempt to integrate recent advances in our understanding of the relations between culture and genes into an emerging field—cultural genomics—and discuss its promises and theoretical and methodological challenges. We first provide a brief review of previous conceptualizations about the relations between culture and genes and then argue that recent advances in molecular evolution research has allowed us to reframe the discussion away from parallel genetic and cultural evolution to focus on the interactions between the two. After outlining the key issues involved in cultural genomics (unit of analysis, timescale, mechanisms, and direction of influence), we provide examples of research for the different levels of interactions between culture and genes. We then discuss ideological, theoretical, and methodological challenges in cultural genomics and propose tentative solutions.
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35
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An integrated model of gene-culture coevolution of language mediated by phenotypic plasticity. Sci Rep 2018; 8:8025. [PMID: 29795297 PMCID: PMC5966417 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-26233-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2017] [Accepted: 04/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
In this paper, we propose an agent-based model for investigating possible scenarios of genetic and cultural language evolution based on an integrated gene-culture coevolutionary framework. We focused on the following problems: (1) how communicative ability can evolve directionally under positive frequency-dependent selection and (2) how much of the directional effect there is between language and biological evolution. In our evolutionary experiments and analysis, we discovered a coevolutionary scenario involving the biological evolution of phenotypic plasticity and a cyclic coevolutionary dynamic between genetic and cultural evolution that is mediated by phenotypic plasticity. Furthermore, we discovered that the rates of cultural change are usually faster than the biological rates and fluctuate on a short time scale; on a long time scale, however, cultural rates tend to be slow. This implies that biological evolution can maintain the pace with language evolution. Finally, we analyzed the transfer entropy for a quantitative discussion of the directional effects between both evolutions. The results showed that biological evolution appears to be unable to maintain the pace with language evolution on short time scales, while their mutual directional effects are in the same range on long time scales. This implies that language and the relevant biology could coevolve.
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36
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Antoci A, Galeotti M, Russu P, Luigi Sacco P. The cultural implications of growth: Modeling nonlinear interaction of trait selection and population dynamics. CHAOS (WOODBURY, N.Y.) 2018; 28:055906. [PMID: 29857666 DOI: 10.1063/1.5025163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we study a nonlinear model of the interaction between trait selection and population dynamics, building on previous work of Ghirlanda et al. [Theor. Popul. Biol. 77, 181-188 (2010)] and Antoci et al. [Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 58, 92-106 (2018)]. We establish some basic properties of the model dynamics and present some simulations of the fine-grained structure of alternative dynamic regimes for chosen combinations of parameters. The role of the parameters that govern the reinforcement/corruption of maladaptive vs. adaptive traits is of special importance in determining the model's dynamic evolution. The main implication of this result is the need to pay special attention to the structural forces that may favor the emergence and consolidation of maladaptive traits in contemporary socio-economies, as it is the case, for example, for the stimulation of dysfunctional consumption habits and lifestyles in the pursuit of short-term profits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelo Antoci
- Department of Economics and Business (DiSea), University of Sassari, via Muroni 25, 07100 Sassari, Italy
| | - Marcello Galeotti
- Department of Statistics, Informatics and Applications (DISIA), University of Florence, via Pandette 9, 50127 Florence, Italy
| | - Paolo Russu
- Department of Economics and Business (DiSea), University of Sassari, via Muroni 25, 07100 Sassari, Italy
| | - Pier Luigi Sacco
- Department of Humanities, IULM University of Milan, Via Carlo Bo 1, 20143 Milan, Italy and FBK-IRVAPP, Via Santa Croce 77, 38122 Trento Italy
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Abstract
Whales and dolphins (Cetacea) have excellent social learning skills as well as a long and strong mother-calf bond. These features produce stable cultures, and, in some species, sympatric groups with different cultures. There is evidence and speculation that this cultural transmission of behavior has affected gene distributions. Culture seems to have driven killer whales into distinct ecotypes, which may be incipient species or subspecies. There are ecotype-specific signals of selection in functional genes that correspond to cultural foraging behavior and habitat use by the different ecotypes. The five species of whale with matrilineal social systems have remarkably low diversity of mtDNA. Cultural hitchhiking, the transmission of functionally neutral genes in parallel with selective cultural traits, is a plausible hypothesis for this low diversity, especially in sperm whales. In killer whales the ecotype divisions, together with founding bottlenecks, selection, and cultural hitchhiking, likely explain the low mtDNA diversity. Several cetacean species show habitat-specific distributions of mtDNA haplotypes, probably the result of mother-offspring cultural transmission of migration routes or destinations. In bottlenose dolphins, remarkable small-scale differences in haplotype distribution result from maternal cultural transmission of foraging methods, and large-scale redistributions of sperm whale cultural clans in the Pacific have likely changed mitochondrial genetic geography. With the acceleration of genomics new results should come fast, but understanding gene-culture coevolution will be hampered by the measured pace of research on the socio-cultural side of cetacean biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hal Whitehead
- Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4R2
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Holocene Selection for Variants Associated With General Cognitive Ability: Comparing Ancient and Modern Genomes. Twin Res Hum Genet 2017; 20:271-280. [DOI: 10.1017/thg.2017.37] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Human populations living during the Holocene underwent considerable microevolutionary change. It has been theorized that the transition of Holocene populations into agrarianism and urbanization brought about culture-gene co-evolution that favored via directional selection genetic variants associated with higher general cognitive ability (GCA). To examine whether GCA might have risen during the Holocene, we compare a sample of 99 ancient Eurasian genomes (ranging from 4.56 to 1.21 kyr BP) with a sample of 503 modern European genomes (Fst= 0.013), using three different cognitive polygenic scores (130 SNP, 9 SNP and 11 SNP). Significant differences favoring the modern genomes were found for all three polygenic scores (odds ratios = 0.92,p= 001; .81,p= 037; and .81,p= .02 respectively). These polygenic scores also outperformed the majority of scores assembled from random SNPs generated via a Monte Carlo model (between 76.4% and 84.6%). Furthermore, an indication of increasing positive allele count over 3.25 kyr was found using a subsample of 66 ancient genomes (r= 0.22,pone-tailed= .04). These observations are consistent with the expectation that GCA rose during the Holocene.
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The Reproductive Ecology of Industrial Societies, Part I : Why Measuring Fertility Matters. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2017; 27:422-444. [PMID: 27670436 PMCID: PMC5107203 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-016-9269-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Is fertility relevant to evolutionary analyses conducted in modern industrial societies? This question has been the subject of a highly contentious debate, beginning in the late 1980s and continuing to this day. Researchers in both evolutionary and social sciences have argued that the measurement of fitness-related traits (e.g., fertility) offers little insight into evolutionary processes, on the grounds that modern industrial environments differ so greatly from those of our ancestral past that our behavior can no longer be expected to be adaptive. In contrast, we argue that fertility measurements in industrial society are essential for a complete evolutionary analysis: in particular, such data can provide evidence for any putative adaptive mismatch between ancestral environments and those of the present day, and they can provide insight into the selection pressures currently operating on contemporary populations. Having made this positive case, we then go on to discuss some challenges of fertility-related analyses among industrialized populations, particularly those that involve large-scale databases. These include “researcher degrees of freedom” (i.e., the choices made about which variables to analyze and how) and the different biases that may exist in such data. Despite these concerns, large datasets from multiple populations represent an excellent opportunity to test evolutionary hypotheses in great detail, enriching the evolutionary understanding of human behavior.
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Gurven M, Stieglitz J, Trumble B, Blackwell AD, Beheim B, Davis H, Hooper P, Kaplan H. The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine. Evol Anthropol 2017; 26:54-73. [PMID: 28429567 PMCID: PMC5421261 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 93] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project, an integrated bio-behavioral study of the human life course, is designed to test competing hypotheses of human life-history evolution. One aim is to understand the bidirectional connections between life history and social behavior in a high-fertility, kin-based context lacking amenities of modern urban life (e.g. sanitation, banks, electricity). Another aim is to understand how a high pathogen burden influences health and well-being during development and adulthood. A third aim addresses how modernization shapes human life histories and sociality. Here we outline the project's goals, history, and main findings since its inception in 2002. We reflect on the implications of current findings and highlight the need for more coordinated ethnographic and biomedical study of contemporary nonindustrial populations to address broad questions that can situate evolutionary anthropology in a key position within the social and life sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Gurven
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of California‐Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara CA
| | | | - Benjamin Trumble
- Center for Evolution and Medicine; School of Human Evolution and Social ChangeArizona State UniversityTempeAZ
| | - Aaron D. Blackwell
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of California‐Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara CA
| | - Bret Beheim
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and CultureMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyLeipzigGermany
| | - Helen Davis
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUT
| | | | - Hillard Kaplan
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of New MexicoAlbuquerqueNM
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Winegard B, Winegard B, Boutwell B. Human Biological and Psychological Diversity. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s40806-016-0081-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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SOME USES OF MODELS OF QUANTITATIVE GENETIC SELECTION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE. J Biosoc Sci 2017; 49:15-30. [DOI: 10.1017/s002193201600002x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
SummaryThe theory of selection of quantitative traits is widely used in evolutionary biology, agriculture and other related fields. The fundamental model known as the breeder’s equation is simple, robust over short time scales, and it is often possible to estimate plausible parameters. In this paper it is suggested that the results of this model provide useful yardsticks for the description of social traits and the evaluation of transmission models. The differences on a standard personality test between samples of Old Order Amish and Indiana rural young men from the same county and the decline of homicide in Medieval Europe are used as illustrative examples of the overall approach. It is shown that the decline of homicide is unremarkable under a threshold model while the differences between rural Amish and non-Amish young men are too large to be a plausible outcome of simple genetic selection in which assortative mating by affiliation is equivalent to truncation selection.
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Sustainable Digital Environments: What Major Challenges Is Humankind Facing? SUSTAINABILITY 2016. [DOI: 10.3390/su8080726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Downey G. Being Human in Cities: Phenotypic Bias from Urban Niche Construction. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1086/685710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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45
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Genome-culture coevolution promotes rapid divergence of killer whale ecotypes. Nat Commun 2016; 7:11693. [PMID: 27243207 PMCID: PMC4895049 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11693] [Citation(s) in RCA: 135] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2015] [Accepted: 04/18/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Analysing population genomic data from killer whale ecotypes, which we estimate have globally radiated within less than 250,000 years, we show that genetic structuring including the segregation of potentially functional alleles is associated with socially inherited ecological niche. Reconstruction of ancestral demographic history revealed bottlenecks during founder events, likely promoting ecological divergence and genetic drift resulting in a wide range of genome-wide differentiation between pairs of allopatric and sympatric ecotypes. Functional enrichment analyses provided evidence for regional genomic divergence associated with habitat, dietary preferences and post-zygotic reproductive isolation. Our findings are consistent with expansion of small founder groups into novel niches by an initial plastic behavioural response, perpetuated by social learning imposing an altered natural selection regime. The study constitutes an important step towards an understanding of the complex interaction between demographic history, culture, ecological adaptation and evolution at the genomic level. Killer whales have evolved into specialized ecotypes based on hunting strategies and ecological niches. Here, Andrew Foote and colleagues sequenced the whole genome of individual killer whales representing 5 different ecotypes from North Pacific and Antarctic, and show expansion of small founder groups to adapt to specific ecological niches.
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Gender Interacts with Opioid Receptor Polymorphism A118G and Serotonin Receptor Polymorphism −1438 A/G on Speed-Dating Success. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2016; 27:244-60. [DOI: 10.1007/s12110-016-9257-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
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Heath KM, Axton JH, McCullough JM, Harris N. The evolutionary adaptation of the C282Y mutation to culture and climate during the European Neolithic. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2016; 160:86-101. [PMID: 26799452 PMCID: PMC5066702 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2015] [Revised: 12/20/2015] [Accepted: 12/20/2015] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The C282Y allele is the major cause of hemochromatosis as a result of excessive iron absorption. The mutation arose in continental Europe no earlier than 6,000 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of the Neolithic agricultural revolution. Here we hypothesize that this new Neolithic diet, which originated in the sunny warm and dry climates of the Middle East, was carried by migrating farmers into the chilly and damp environments of Europe where iron is a critical micronutrient for effective thermoregulation. We argue that the C282Y allele was an adaptation to this novel environment. MATERIALS AND METHODS To address our hypothesis, we compiled C282Y allele frequencies, known Neolithic sites in Europe and climatic data on temperature and rainfall for statistical analysis. RESULTS Our findings indicate that the geographic cline for C282Y frequency in Europe increases as average temperatures decrease below 16°C, a critical threshold for thermoregulation, with rainy days intensifying the trend. DISCUSSION The results indicate that the deleterious C282Y allele, responsible for most cases of hemochromatosis, may have evolved as a selective advantage to culture and climate during the European Neolithic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen M. Heath
- Department of Earth and Environmental SystemsIndiana State UniversityTerre HauteIN47809
| | - Jacob H. Axton
- Department of BiologyIndiana State UniversityTerre HauteIN47809
| | | | - Nathan Harris
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUT84112
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49
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Abstract
A central debate in cognitive science concerns the nativist hypothesis, the proposal that universal features of behavior reflect a biologically determined cognitive substrate: For example, linguistic nativism proposes a domain-specific faculty of language that strongly constrains which languages can be learned. An evolutionary stance appears to provide support for linguistic nativism, because coordinated constraints on variation may facilitate communication and therefore be adaptive. However, language, like many other human behaviors, is underpinned by social learning and cultural transmission alongside biological evolution. We set out two models of these interactions, which show how culture can facilitate rapid biological adaptation yet rule out strong nativization. The amplifying effects of culture can allow weak cognitive biases to have significant population-level consequences, radically increasing the evolvability of weak, defeasible inductive biases; however, the emergence of a strong cultural universal does not imply, nor lead to, nor require, strong innate constraints. From this we must conclude, on evolutionary grounds, that the strong nativist hypothesis for language is false. More generally, because such reciprocal interactions between cultural and biological evolution are not limited to language, nativist explanations for many behaviors should be reconsidered: Evolutionary reasoning shows how we can have cognitively driven behavioral universals and yet extreme plasticity at the level of the individual-if, and only if, we account for the human capacity to transmit knowledge culturally. Wherever culture is involved, weak cognitive biases rather than strong innate constraints should be the default assumption.
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50
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Jordan IK. The Columbian Exchange as a source of adaptive introgression in human populations. Biol Direct 2016; 11:17. [PMID: 27038633 PMCID: PMC4818900 DOI: 10.1186/s13062-016-0121-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2016] [Accepted: 03/29/2016] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The term "Columbian Exchange" refers to the massive transfer of life between the Afro-Eurasian and American hemispheres that was precipitated by Columbus' voyage to the New World. The Columbian Exchange is widely appreciated by historians, social scientists and economists as a major turning point that had profound and lasting effects on the trajectory of human history and development. PRESENTATION OF THE HYPOTHESIS I propose that the Columbian Exchange should also be appreciated by biologists for its role in the creation of novel human genomes that have been shaped by rapid adaptive evolution. Specifically, I hypothesize that the process of human genome evolution stimulated by the Columbian Exchange was based in part on selective sweeps of introgressed haplotypes from ancestral populations, many of which possessed pre-evolved adaptive utility based on regional-specific fitness and health effects. TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS Testing of this hypothesis will require comparative analysis of genome sequences from putative ancestral source populations, with genomes from modern admixed populations, in order to identify ancestry-specific introgressed haplotypes that exist at higher frequencies in admixed populations than can be expected by chance alone. Investigation of such ancestry-enriched genomic regions can be used to provide clues as to the functional roles of the genes therein and the selective forces that have acted to increase their frequency in the population. IMPLICATIONS OF THE HYPOTHESIS Critical interrogation of this hypothesis could serve to underscore the important role of introgression as a source of adaptive alleles and as a driver of evolutionary change, and it would highlight the role of admixture in facilitating rapid human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- I King Jordan
- School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 950 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
- PanAmerican Bioinformatics Institute, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia.
- BIOS Centro de Bioinformática y Biología Computacional, Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.
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