| Subject: Ancestors boring sex lives made us disease prone! |
Author:
Betty
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 13:20:20 01/25/05 Tue
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "no no no, you can have her, she's too fat for me" on 10:16:27 03/10/04 Wed
A new study conducted by the University Of Bath, Edinburgh and Sussex, suggests that our evolutionary ancestors' lack of choice in the mating game has left modern humans exposed to disease.
The research published in the journal PLOS Biology found that the key regions of our DNA, that control when genes are switched on and off, have been altered by around 140,000 naturally-occurring mutations over the last six million years.
This has left modern humans with 'sloppy' gene control mechanisms which can make us susceptible to diseases, or directly cause genetic diseases.
Most of the 'mildly harmful' mutations occurred at a time when there was only a small population (10,000) of early Hominids who later evolved into both humans and chimpanzees.
Had there been more early Hominids, and hence a greater choice of mates, most of these mutations would have been overridden by natural selection from a larger pool of available DNA.
This contrasts dramatically with rats and mice which, because of their larger ancestral population, have been able to maintain the integrity of their regulatory sections of DNA.
After 'unwinding' evolution using statistical techniques, they found that the way our genes are switched on and off is much less carefully controlled in humans and chimpanzees compared to other animals.
"We are used to viewing us as the pinnacle of evolution but seeing that rodents control their genes much more precisely is somewhat sobering," lead researcher Martin Lercher was quoted as saying.
"As a species we have become used to the benefits of ever- increasing health care and nutrition, but if what we found is still ongoing, then these improvements might at some point be offset by the deterioration of our gene control regions," he added.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 