The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection.
Stephen CorbettAlexandre CourtiolVirpi LummaaJacob MooradStephen StearnsPublished in: Nature reviews. Genetics (2019)
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.
Keyphrases
- global health
- coronary artery disease
- genome wide
- copy number
- endothelial cells
- high intensity
- public health
- papillary thyroid
- healthcare
- physical activity
- body composition
- mild cognitive impairment
- wastewater treatment
- percutaneous coronary intervention
- dna methylation
- mental health
- gene expression
- type diabetes
- heart failure
- young adults
- pluripotent stem cells
- coronary artery bypass grafting
- left ventricular
- lymph node metastasis