scholarly journals BMD Loci Contribute to Ethnic and Developmental Differences in Skeletal Fragility across Populations: Assessment of Evolutionary Selection Pressures

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 2961-2972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Medina-Gómez ◽  
Alessandra Chesi ◽  
Denise H.M. Heppe ◽  
Babette S. Zemel ◽  
Jia-Lian Yin ◽  
...  
Physiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B. Daniels ◽  
Sandra Orgeig

Pulmonary surfactant controls the surface tension at the air-liquid interface within the lung. This system had a single evolutionary origin that predates the evolution of the vertebrates and lungs. The lipid composition of surfactant has been subjected to evolutionary selection pressures, particularly temperature, throughout the evolution of the vertebrates.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2112
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Little ◽  
Jack A. F. Griffey

Background: Visual symmetry is often found attractive. Symmetry may be preferred either due to a bias in the visual system or due to evolutionary selection pressures related to partner preference. Simple perceptual bias views predict that symmetry preferences should be similar across types of stimuli and unlikely to be related to factors such as age. Methods: The current study examined preferences for symmetry across age groups (pre-puberty vs post-puberty) and stimuli type (human face vs monkey face). Pairs of images manipulated for symmetry were presented and participants asked to choose the image they preferred. Participants repeated the task and were asked to detect symmetry. Results: Both age of observer and stimuli type were associated with symmetry preferences. Older observers had higher preferences for symmetry but preferred it most in human vs monkey stimuli. Across both age groups, symmetry preferences and detection abilities were weakly related. Conclusions: The study supports some ideas from an evolutionary advantage view of symmetry preference, whereby symmetry is expected be higher for potential partners (here human faces) and higher post-puberty when partner choice becomes more relevant. Such potentially motivational based preferences challenge perceptual bias explanations as a sole explanation for symmetry preferences but may occur alongside them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haojie Li ◽  
Yonghai Fan ◽  
Jingyin Yu ◽  
Liang Chai ◽  
Jingfang Zhang ◽  
...  

Flowering time is a key agronomic trait, directly influencing crop yield and quality. Many flowering-time genes have been identified and characterized in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana; however, these genes remain uncharacterized in many agronomically important Brassica crops. In this study, we identified 1064, 510, and 524 putative orthologs of A. thaliana flowering-time genes from Brassica napus, Brassica rapa, and Brassica oleracea, respectively, and found that genes involved in the aging and ambient temperature pathways were fewer than those in other flowering pathways. Flowering-time genes were distributed mostly on chromosome C03 in B. napus and B. oleracea, and on chromosome A09 in B. rapa. Calculation of non-synonymous (Ka)/synonymous substitution (Ks) ratios suggested that flowering-time genes in vernalization pathways experienced higher selection pressure than those in other pathways. Expression analysis showed that most vernalization-pathway genes were expressed in flowering organs. Approximately 40% of these genes were highly expressed in the anther, whereas flowering-time integrator genes were expressed in a highly organ-specific manner. Evolutionary selection pressures were negatively correlated with the breadth and expression levels of vernalization-pathway genes. These findings provide an integrated framework of flowering-time genes in these three Brassica crops and provide a foundation for deciphering the relationship between gene expression patterns and their evolutionary selection pressures in Brassica napus.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Timothy Lightfoot

The literature strongly suggests that daily physical activity is genetically and biologically regulated. Potential identities of the responsible mechanisms are unclear, but little has been written concerning the possible evolutionary selection pressures leading to the development of genetic/biological controls of physical activity. Given the weak relationship between exercise endurance and activity levels and the differential genomic locations associated with the regulation of endurance and activity, it is probable that regulation of endurance and activity evolved separately. This hypothesis paper considers energy expenditures and duration of activity in hunter/gatherers, pretechnology farmers, and modern Western societies and considers the potential of each to selectively influence the development of activity regulation. Food availability is also considered given the known linkage of caloric restriction on physical activity as well as early data relating food oversupply to physical inactivity. Elucidating the selection pressures responsible for the genetic/biological control of activity will allow further consideration of these pressures on activity in today’s society, especially the linkages between food and activity. Further, current food abundance is removing the cues for activity that were present for the first 40,000 years of human evolution, and thus future research should investigate the effects of this abundance upon the mechanisms regulating activity.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo A. Benítez ◽  
Darija Lemic ◽  
Amado Villalobos-Leiva ◽  
Renata Bažok ◽  
Rodrigo Órdenes-Claveria ◽  
...  

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), in contrast with other asymmetries, is the bilateral asymmetry that represents small, random developmental differences between right and left sides. After nearly a century of using traditional morphometrics in the estimation of FA, geometric morphometrics (GM) now provides new insights into the use of FA as a tool, especially for assessing environmental and developmental stress. Thus, it will be possible to assess adaptation to various environmental stressors as particular triggers for unavoidable selection pressures. In this review, we describe measures of FA that use geometric morphometrics, and we include a flow chart of the methodology. We also describe how this combination (GM + FA) has been tested in several agroecosystems. Nutritional stress, temperature, chemical pollution, and population density are known stressors experienced by populations in agroecosystems.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnon Lotem ◽  
Oren Kolodny ◽  
Joseph Y. Halpern ◽  
Luca Onnis ◽  
Shimon Edelman

AbstractAs a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressures. It must therefore co-evolve with other cognitive mechanisms rather than act as an independent constraint. Recent theory and an implemented model of language acquisition suggest that a limit on working memory may evolve to help learning. Furthermore, it need not hamper the use of language for communication.


1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank C. Verhulst

In this article, recent developments in the assessment and diagnosis of child psychopathology are discussed with an emphasis on standardized methodologies that provide data that can be scored on empirically derived groupings of problems that tend to co-occur. Assessment methodologies are highlighted that especially take account of the following three basic characteristics of child psychopathology: (1) the quantitative nature of child psychopathology; (2) the role of developmental differences in the occurrence of problem behaviors, and (3) the need for multiple informants. Cross-cultural research is needed to test the applicability of assessment procedures across different settings as well as the generalizability of taxonomic constructs. Assessments of children in different cultures can be compared or pooled to arrive at a multicultural knowledge base which may be much stronger than knowledge based on only one culture. It is essential to avoid assuming that data from any single source reveal the significance of particular problems. Instead, comprehensive assessment of psychopathology requires coordination of multisource data using a multiaxial assessment approach.


2019 ◽  
Vol 133 (5) ◽  
pp. 467-477
Author(s):  
Anthea A. Stylianakis ◽  
Rick Richardson ◽  
Kathryn D. Baker

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