Scientists found some modern diseases predate human ancient ancestors
28th Jan 2015 | by Carlo Raphael Diokno, POP Herald
Scientists found some modern diseases predate human ancient ancestors
The EVOLUTION of MAN, as scientists know it, is discussed in the mainstream media mostly with positive outcomes, but a new discovery shows that the evolution from our ancestors not only inherited good “stuff,” but also the considered bad ones including diseases like Psoriasis and Crohn’s disease. Additionally, it also explains how the bad one may be good for humans in some aspects (to be used as an advantage), and how natural selection picks and match genetic features to help the species thrive better depending on the situation.
Published this month by Molecular Biology and Evolution, the research found that genetic variations associated with some diseases which are still active today are extremely old, even predating evolution phases of our ancestors and the HOMININS, the Neanderthals and the Denisovans.
The paper explains how genetic diversity of modern humans have traces of deletion, and some have not including traces of genes that are susceptible to the diseases aforementioned above. Participants of the researchers believe that some illnesses “may also have afforded an evolutionary benefit” to ancient humans — so it avoided the so-called gene deletion, a known occurrence in the gene evolution.
Assistant Prof Omer Gokcumen, PhD at the University of Buffalo said the best example to explain this findings is the sickle-cell anemia, a disease which leads to anemia and causes humans to show pallor and weariness due to hemoglobin deficiency. But it’s not all bad for anemia because it also protects humans from Malaria. For species to prosper in Malaria-ridden areas, anemia should remain, so the poorly understood natural selection will not “delete” it.
More:
http://www.popherald.com/news/maladies-ancient-genes-evolution-4173?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+popheraldtechnews+%28PopHerald+Technology+News%29
