Week 1 Flashcards
How does evolution shape diseases?
Bodies not machines, shaped by evolutionary processes
Compromises and examples of ‘bad design’
How does natural selection resource usage result in disease?
Natural selection uses raw material available and maximises ‘fitness’ (not health / lifespan)
E.g. selection for traits that increase reproductive success (fitness), but increase susceptibility to disease (trade offs)
How does culture impact health?
Evolution slower than cultural change
E.g. diets v lifestyles, leading to mismatch
How does pathogens impact species health?
Pathogens evolve faster than hosts
Rapid pathogen evolution
What are examples of bad evolutionary designs?
Eye
Path of the male urethra & vas deferens
Double curvature of the spine
Impacted wisdom teeth
Giraffe pharangeal nerve
Why is the design of the mammalian eye bad?
The vertebrate retina is inverted in the sense that the light-sensing cells are in the back of the retina,
Light has to pass through layers of neurons and capillaries before it reaches the photosensitive sections of the rods and cones
What are the problems with Giraffe pharangeal nerve?
Early fish design made pharengel nerve loop through the dorsal aorta
So in giraffe this is the same, resulting in the nerve being 5m long
Longer the nerve slower the transmission
What is the history of the ureto-genital system?
Urethra passes through the prostate gland
Prostate prone to infection and commonly blocks urethra
Vas deferens also passes up and over the ureter - relic of ancestral condition where testes held within body cavity
What are the three potential causes of the evolution of lactose tolerance?
Adaptation in response to pastoralism (keeping and milking cattle / camels)
Solar radiation
Aridity
What was the methods used to deduce the origin of lactose tolerance?
Phylogenetic comparative methods used in a cross cultural study to distinguish these alternatives
What needs to be accounted for phylogeny?
Phylogenetic pseudoreplication (1 adaptation may cause number of species to live in difference areas rather than multiple independant)
What is believed to be the cause lactose tolerance?
Lactase persistence correlated with pastoralism, not aridity or solar radiation
What is the most likely relationship for the origin of lactose tolerance?
Populations without lactose persistence started to keep and milk cattle resulting later lactase production
How did Evershed challenge the nature of lactase persistence?
Studied detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years
Found only weak associations of LP genotype with history of milk consumption
Other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered
What is the genetic basis for the lactase persistence?
Lactase persistence stays high in intestinal cells
Upstream changes to LCT gene - regulatory changes
Persistence alleles bind transcription factors strongly
What is the haplotype network for lactase persistence?
European H98 (only cows) and African H100 (cows and camels) alleles have same non lactase persistence ancestor H84 (only camels)
H99 has different background haplotype H107
Differing history of adaptation to milking culture
What is an overview of HIV?
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS
Zoonotic origin
Two main groups HIV-1 and HIV-2 (HIV-1N caused epidemic in humans)
Initial clinical description decades ago, millions of deaths.
What is an overview of HIV infection locations?
Epicentre in sub-Saharan Africa
Elsewhere, new waves of infection
What is an overview of HIV treatments?
Combinatorial antiretroviral treatments afford clinical relief to those who receive it
What is the origin of HIV-1M or N humans?
Recombination between 3 different SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) this infected a chimpanzee
2 spill overs in SIVcpz resulted in transfer into humans and the 2 different strains
What is the origin of HIV-1O or P humans?
Recombination between 3 different SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) this infected a chimpanzee
1 spill over in SIVcpz resulted in transfer into gorrillas
2 spill overs in SIVgor resulted in the 2 different strains jumping into humans
What is an overview of the transfer of primate lentiviruses?
A large amount of transfer between viruses, not just between closely related primates but the middle and long distance too
What are the relationship between HIV and SIV?
Closest relatives of HIV are SIVs (many tens of distinct lentiviruses, SIVs, that infect primates in Africa)
What is the origin of HIV2 in humans?
9 spill over events from Sooty Mangabay