EF - Natural Selection

Did early lineages have culture?

yeah, there were pretty advanced cave paintings with animals and ppl on it like 35k yrs ago

-some even abt fertility of women and they also found some sculptures

Leberg and Paabo Study

found that theres a major risk factor for respiratory failure from this neanderthal gene (chromosome 3??)

-but they did leave us some good stuff like protection from COVID in chromosome 12

Richard Lewontin

one of first to say if theres subdivisons (race, ethnicity...) of humans, we should be able to see it in genetics

-so he demonstrated that differences in DNA between groups of people were smaller than we originally thought

What is Fst

Its a measure to compare populations ranging from 0-1, 0 meaning completely different and 1 being exactly the same.

-measures how likely you are to mate with someone in a different population

-so it then helps us measure population diveristy

Rapid rates of evolution

-genes or genome regions that are evolving more rapidly in humans than in our close relatives may be evolving by selection

A method to detect genes under natural selection, used gene chip with 12K human genes to look at differences in expression patterns among 3 primates

-found large differences in brain expression patterns

-**rapid evolution of gene expression patterns in human brain so being intelligent must've been under natural selection

GWAS (Genome Wide Association Study)

a research approach that scans the entire human genome for genetic variations (SNPs) associated with a particular trait or disease

may reveal genetic basis of phenotypes

Genome Scans - Population Genomic Approaches

Genome scans look at many different spots (loci) across the DNA of organisms from different populations to see how much those spots differ between them. This helps scientists find parts of the genome that may be evolving differently due to things like natural selection.

UK10K Project

3000 genomes looked at to assess selection in humans

-found evidence that many traits under selection like age related traits or specific phenotypes

-examples: height (m&f), female hip size, birth weight, male growth spurt

Selection on specific natures (birth weight and fertility)

selection bc not being in the range for this could lead to potential danger

CRISPR ethicial considerations

Cure - you're cure from editing would not be passed down

Prevention - probability of getting it (disease-edited), thinking you have disease but actually don't and just editing for no reason

Enhancement - for physical traits, even more selective than treatments bc expensive and kinda creates some sort of species or at least discrimination

Pitfalls of gene editing (CRISPR)

-Off target effects- can modify things not meant to be edited

-Immune responses- unforeseen immune reactions can happen in response to gene editing