Did genetic links to modern maladies provide ancient benefits?
A study finds that humanity?s early ancestors had genetic variations associated with modern disease, and now the question is why
By Charlotte Hsu
Release Date: January 28, 2015
...Some of humanity?s early ancestors had the telltale features, called deletions, while others did not, mirroring the variation in modern humans, the scientists found. This genetic diversity may have arisen as far back as a million or more years ago in a common ancestor of humans, Denisovans and Neanderthals.
The discovery highlights the importance of balancing selection, a poorly understood evolutionary dance in which dueling forces drive species to retain a diverse set of genetic features.
The research raises the possibility that the diseases in question ?
or at least a genetic susceptibility to them ? "may have been with us for a long time," Gokcumen says.
Why this would happen is an open question, but one possibility is that certain traits that made humans susceptible to Crohn’s and psoriasis may also have afforded an evolutionary benefit to our ancient ancestors. - See more at:
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases....RMEtZ2fV.dpuf
- See more at:
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases....RMEtZ2fV.dpuf
