Week #1

• Hunther/gatherer
• Agricultural
• Industrial

Explanations of disease in the context of human natural selection and human environmental transitions

Hunter gatherer socieites > modern humans migrate from origins in East Africa to other places > agricultural societies > industrial information

• 1900 - Frequent cause of death: pneumonia/influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea/enteritis
• Caused by communicable bacterial or viral diseases
• Since 1940s - cardiovascular disease, cancer, degenerative diseases
• Caused by longer lifespans

• Any variation will be naturally selected if it increases the probability that an organism will...
• 1. Survive throughout entire reproductive period
• 2. Produce many progeny
• 3. Protect these progeny so that they survive to reproduce
• Selection principally acts at the levels of genes

Analyze mutational changes during human evolution

• Negative
• Positive
• Neutral

• Common way of labeling mutational differences b/w humans
• General term denoting genetic constitution of individual chromosome
• Specific type: SNPs

• On a single chromatid that can be associated with human characteristics
• Wikidpedia: DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide — A, T, C, or G — in the genome (or other shared sequence) differs between members of a species

• Random chance changes frequency if specific allele or gene throughout entire gene pool
• Nothing to do with selective forces

• Thermostable DNA polymerase
• Sequence information enabling synthesis of specific oligo

• Suitable host cell
• Replicon
• Means of attaching foreign DNA to replicon and transferring to host cell

• 1. Denature dsDNA by heating
• 2. Allow primers to anneal
• 3. DNA synthesis

Chain termination method

• Chain terminating nucleotides lack 3' OH groups
• Have fluorescent labels
• 

• 
• The peaks are fluorescence intensities at different times of passage through a sequencing gel

• Highly parallel
• 1. Dilute DNA sequence so that only one DNA sequence will attach to a single bead
• 2. Amplify the fragments on the surface of the beads – each bead is a PCR reaction
• 3. Beads put on a picotiter plate
• 4. Apply pyrosequencing – each time you pass a solution over the plate to fill the well with a T nucleotide and when it gets incorporated there will be a flash of light (repeat with the other nucleotides)

~6 million

• Use Y chromosome
• Only 1 Y chromosome = no recombination
• Haplotype markers passed unchanged from father to son
• High rate of mutation b/c large junk DNA

• Use mitochondrial DNA
• Maternally inherited only
• Male sperm mitochondria not passed to offspring

• Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA not identical
• Due to males moving less than females

• Skeletal paleontology
• Tool evolution
• Language evolution

High death rates (but same life-span as industrial)

• Accident
• Food shortage
• Predation
• Homicide
• Parasitic disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Childbirth

• Non-communicable dieseases rare
• Populations not large enough or dense enough to maintain and spread infectious diseases
• Irregular contact with other bands

Earliest origin of highly organized agriculture and animal domestication

• Hunter energy sources
• 65% lean game, wild fowl, eggs, fish, shellfish
• 35% fruits, vegs, nuts
• American energy sources
• 55% cereal, grains, milk, sugar, alcohol
• 28% meat, poulty, eggs, fish, shellfis
• 17% fruits, vegs, nuts

• Activity levels
• Diet
• Exposure to infectious microbes

• Exposure to animal viruses
• Diseases enhanced by carb diets
• High transmission of human-human disease pathogens

Cattle

Primates

Birds

Pigs

Cattle

Sheep

Goats

Pigs, birds, dog

• Sheep
• ~11,000 years ago

• Sedentary lifestyles
• Longer average lifespans
• Abudant food
• Highly processed food
• Exposure to synthetic chemicals
• Increase in medical technology

• Diabetes
• Myopia
• Cancer
• Heart disease

• All variables controlled except single variable being tested
• Evidence must reproducible by others
• Someone else reaching the same conclusion using different evidence