A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal
The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection
Authors: Stephen Corbett, Alexandre Courtiol, Virpi Lummaa, Jacob Moorad, Stephen Stearns
Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Nature Reviews Genetics
Journal name in source: NATURE REVIEWS GENETICS
Journal acronym: NAT REV GENET
Volume: 19
Issue: 7
First page : 419
Last page: 430
Number of pages: 12
ISSN: 1471-0056
eISSN: 1471-0064
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-018-0012-3
Abstract
The Industrial Revolution and the accompanying nutritional, epidemiological and demographic transitions have profoundly changed human ecology and biology, leading to major shifts in life history traits, which include age and size at maturity, age-specific fertility and lifespan. Mismatch between past adaptations and the current environment means that gene variants linked to higher fitness in the past may now, through antagonistic pleiotropic effects, predispose post-transition populations to non-communicable diseases, such as Alzheimer disease, cancer and coronary artery disease. Increasing evidence suggests that the transition to modernity has also altered the direction and intensity of natural selection acting on many traits, with important implications for public and global health.
The Industrial Revolution and the accompanying nutritional, epidemiological and demographic transitions have profoundly changed human ecology and biology, leading to major shifts in life history traits, which include age and size at maturity, age-specific fertility and lifespan. Mismatch between past adaptations and the current environment means that gene variants linked to higher fitness in the past may now, through antagonistic pleiotropic effects, predispose post-transition populations to non-communicable diseases, such as Alzheimer disease, cancer and coronary artery disease. Increasing evidence suggests that the transition to modernity has also altered the direction and intensity of natural selection acting on many traits, with important implications for public and global health.
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