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Evolutionary change in physiological phenotypes along the human lineage.

Alexander Q Vining1, Charles L Nunn2

  • 1Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA av127@duke.edu.

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
|September 13, 2016
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Human physiology shows more evolutionary change than other primates, with specific traits like amylase and haematocrit increasing. These evolutionary shifts may offer insights into human disease susceptibility.

Keywords:
comparative analysishuman evolutionhuman physiologyprimates

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Medicine
  • Primate Physiology
  • Human Evolution

Background:

  • Evolutionary medicine studies how evolution impacts human disease susceptibility.
  • Rapid evolutionary changes can incur costs or reduce energy for other traits.
  • Humans may have experienced more evolutionary changes than other primates due to significant lineage-specific changes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate 41 physiological traits across 50 primate species.
  • To identify traits that have undergone significant evolutionary change along the human lineage.
  • To test the hypothesis that humans have experienced more evolutionary changes than other primates.

Main Methods:

  • Employed two Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods for data analysis.
  • Modeled trait covariation in non-human primates to predict human phenotypes and identify outliers.
  • Assessed adaptive shifts using an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model to compare human lineage changes with other primates.

Main Results:

  • Identified four traits with increased evolutionary change on the human lineage: amylase, haematocrit, phosphorus, and monocytes.
  • Observed a decrease in neutrophilic bands on the human lineage.
  • Humans demonstrated a greater number of distinct evolutionary trait changes compared to other primates.

Conclusions:

  • Human physiology has undergone more significant evolutionary change relative to other primates.
  • Potential drivers include long-distance running (haematocrit) and dietary shifts (amylase).
  • Increased monocyte levels align with the pathogen load hypothesis, though other immune measures did not show similar changes.