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Related Concept Videos

Burn Injuries01:22

Burn Injuries

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Burn injuries occur when the skin and underlying tissues are damaged due to exposure to heat, electricity, chemicals, radiation, or friction. They can vary in severity, from minor superficial burns to severe deep burns that can be life-threatening.
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The Evidence for Evolution02:55

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Genetic variations accumulating within populations over generations give rise to biological evolution. Evolutionary changes can result in the formation of novel varieties and entire new species. These changes are responsible for the diverse forms of life inhabiting the planet. The evidence for evolution suggests that all living organisms descended from common ancestors.
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Convergent Evolution01:54

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Evolution shapes the features of organisms over time, ensuring that they are suited for the environments in which they live. Sometimes, selection pressure leads to the rise of similar but unrelated adaptations in organisms with no recent common ancestors, a process known as convergent evolution.
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What is Natural Selection?01:32

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Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.
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Eukaryotic Evolution01:24

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The endosymbiont theory is the most widely accepted theory of eukaryotic evolution; however, its progression is still somewhat debated. According to the nucleus-first hypothesis, the ancestral prokaryote first evolved a membrane to enclose DNA and form the nucleus. Conversely, the mitochondria-first hypothesis suggests that the nucleus was formed after endosymbiosis of mitochondria.
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John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
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Burn Injury-Induced Pain and Depression-Like Behavior in Mice
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Burn Selection: How Fire Injury Shaped Human Evolution.

Joshua Cuddihy1,2, Yuemin Li3, Isobel Fisher4

  • 1Nociception group, Division of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, UK.

Bioessays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
|February 5, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

High-temperature burn injury, a unique human cost of fire mastery, acted as a selective pressure driving genetic adaptations in wound healing and inflammation response. This Burn Selection Hypothesis re-evaluates human evolution.

Keywords:
fire usehuman evolutioninflammationnatural selectionthermal traumawound healing

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Area of Science:

  • Human evolution
  • Paleogenomics
  • Burn injury

Background:

  • Fire mastery provided significant evolutionary advantages for humans, impacting diet, behavior, physiology, and ecology.
  • Despite benefits, a unique cost of fire use is high-temperature burn injury, posing a distinct selective pressure on humans and their ancestors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the overlooked cost of burn injuries as a selective pressure in human evolution.
  • To explore the hypothesis that recurrent burn exposure has driven genetic adaptations in humans.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative genomic analysis of primates.
  • Examination of genes related to wound healing and inflammation response.

Main Results:

  • Genes involved in burn injury response, including wound healing and inflammation, show accelerated evolution in humans compared to other primates.
  • Evidence suggests a link between burn exposure and genetic adaptations in the human lineage.

Conclusions:

  • Recurrent high-temperature burn injuries acted as a significant selective force in human evolution.
  • The Burn Selection Hypothesis offers a new framework for understanding human biological adaptations and responses to severe injury.
  • This perspective can inform modern burn care strategies by considering evolutionary factors.