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The evolutionary biology of child health
1Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, Canada. crespi@sfu.ca
Insights
Evolutionary insights reveal how human-specific adaptations and genomic conflicts impact child health and development. Understanding these factors offers new perspectives on childhood diseases and growth patterns.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Human development
- Genetics
Background:
- Child health is influenced by evolutionary changes along the human lineage.
- Human-specific adaptations like earlier weaning and prolonged pre-adult stages impact growth and development.
- Genomic conflicts and imprinted genes play a significant role in pre-adult growth, development, and behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze central issues in child health using evolutionary perspectives.
- To investigate the roles of human-specific adaptations and genomic conflicts in physical growth and development.
- To provide novel insights into childhood disease causes by understanding growth phenotypes in an evolutionary context.
Main Methods:
- Comparative primatology
- Anthropology
- Physiology
- Human genetic and epigenetic studies
- Mouse models
Main Results:
- Child health risks are shaped by evolutionary changes affecting developmental timing and phenotypes.
- Earlier weaning and extended pre-adult stages in humans create vulnerabilities for maladaptations.
- Paediatric cancer incidence correlates with child growth rates and is influenced by imprinted genes controlling growth.
Conclusions:
- Understanding the adaptive significance of child growth phenotypes in the context of human evolution and genomic conflicts is crucial.
- Evolutionary changes and genomic conflicts offer novel insights into the etiology of childhood diseases.
- This research highlights the interplay between evolutionary biology, genetics, and child health outcomes.
Abstract:
I apply evolutionary perspectives and conceptual tools to analyse central issues underlying child health, with emphases on the roles of human-specific adaptations and genomic conflicts in physical growth and development. Evidence from comparative primatology, anthropology, physiology and human disorders indicates that child health risks have evolved in the context of evolutionary changes, along the human lineage, affecting the timing, growth-differentiation phenotypes and adaptive significance of prenatal stages, infancy, childhood, juvenility and adolescence. The most striking evolutionary changes in humans are earlier weaning and prolonged subsequent pre-adult stages, which have structured and potentiated maladaptations related to growth and development. Data from human genetic and epigenetic studies, and mouse models, indicate that growth, development and behaviour during pre-adult stages are mediated to a notable degree by effects from genomic conflicts and imprinted genes. The incidence of cancer, the primary cause of non-infectious childhood mortality, mirrors child growth rates from birth to adolescence, with paediatric cancer development impacted by imprinted genes that control aspects of growth. Understanding the adaptive significance of child growth and development phenotypes, in the context of human-evolutionary changes and genomic conflicts, provides novel insights into the causes of disease in childhood.
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