Adaptive Evolution of the FADS Gene Cluster within Africa
Rasika A Mathias cs 2012 PLoS One doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0044926
Long-chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids LC-PUFAs are essential for brain structure, development & function: adequate dietary quantities of LC-PUFAs are thought to have been necessary for
- brain expansion,
- the increase in brain complexity observed during modern human evolution. Previous studies conducted in largely European populations suggest:
humans have limited capacity to synthesize brain LC-PUFAs (e.g. docosahexaenoic acid DHA) from plant-based medium-chain MC-PUFAs, due to limited desaturase activity.
Population-based differences in LC-PUFA levels & their product-to-substrate ratios can, in part, be explained by polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase FADS gene cluster (ass.x increased conversion of MC-PUFAs to LC-PUFAs).
Here we show evidence:
these high-efficiency converter alleles in the FADS gene cluster were likely driven to near-fixation in African populations by positive selection ∼85 ka.
We hypothesize:
selection at FADS variants (which increase LC-PUFA synthesis from plant-based MC-PUFAs) allowed African populations, obligatorily tethered to marine sources for LC-PUFAs in isolated geographic regions, to rapidly expand throughout Africa 60–80 ka.
Op zondag 13 november 2022 om 17:20:50 UTC+1 schreef littor...@gmail.com:
I should have said: "+-independent from aquatic foods": neandertals have larger brains than we have.
I should have said: "+-independent from aquatic foods": neandertals have larger brains than we have.
So, the Kow Swamp Homo sapiens from Australia, at 9.5 to 13 ka much
younger than 85 ka, would have been "+-independent from aquatic
foods" ...
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