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Author Topic:   Mutational Problem
barbara
Member (Idle past 4802 days)
Posts: 167
Joined: 07-19-2010


Message 16 of 20 (599507)
01-08-2011 10:51 AM
Reply to: Message 11 by Taq
01-06-2011 1:15 PM


Harmful Mutations if constant???
Wouldn't the high rate of diabetes, heart disease, cancer be considered harmful mutations in the gene pool? These are certainly on the rise and are listed on most individuals past medical and family history forms when they come into the doctor's office as a new patient.
Mixed race offspring is very common these days and I see that eventually with all of these genes being mixed together that the global population will consist of human mutts some day.
The potential for equilibrium does not appear impossible when you see it from another perspective.

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 Message 11 by Taq, posted 01-06-2011 1:15 PM Taq has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 17 by sfs, posted 01-08-2011 11:10 AM barbara has replied

  
sfs
Member (Idle past 2534 days)
Posts: 464
From: Cambridge, MA USA
Joined: 08-27-2003


Message 17 of 20 (599508)
01-08-2011 11:10 AM
Reply to: Message 16 by barbara
01-08-2011 10:51 AM


Re: Harmful Mutations if constant???
quote:
Wouldn't the high rate of diabetes, heart disease, cancer be considered harmful mutations in the gene pool?
Whether the mutations involved are harmful in the evolutionary sense depends on how much they affect the ability to reproduce. All of those diseases mostly strike later in life, and don't have much evolutionary effect. The associated mutations are probably mildly deleterious overall in our current environment. (When food was more scarce and people seldom lived to old age, some of the same genetic variants were probably beneficial, e.g. variants that predispose toward diabetes may also enable one to handle lack of calories better.)
quote:
These are certainly on the rise and are listed on most individuals past medical and family history forms when they come into the doctor's office as a new patient.
The diseases are on the rise, but that doesn't mean the genetic variants that put one at risk are on the rise. People are getting diabetes more often and at younger ages not because a deleterious mutation is spreading in the population, but because they're eating more and exercising less.
quote:
Mixed race offspring is very common these days and I see that eventually with all of these genes being mixed together that the global population will consist of human mutts some day.
We've always consisted of human mutts: there has always been gene flow between populations, and the populations were never that different to start with. But yes, what regional differences there have been are breaking down. I don't know what this has to do with deleterious mutations, though.

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 Message 16 by barbara, posted 01-08-2011 10:51 AM barbara has replied

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 Message 18 by barbara, posted 01-08-2011 8:18 PM sfs has not replied

  
barbara
Member (Idle past 4802 days)
Posts: 167
Joined: 07-19-2010


Message 18 of 20 (599564)
01-08-2011 8:18 PM
Reply to: Message 17 by sfs
01-08-2011 11:10 AM


Re: Harmful Mutations if constant???
I know several individuals who exercise and are definitely not overweight but are diagnosed with Diabetes II. They have a family history of diabetes which makes me think that people are born with imperfect insulin genes that work in their younger years but as they age they become more damaged as in mutations.
Individuals with family histories of different types of cancer affecting their Mother's, Father's, aunts, grandparents, etc tend to have a higher rate of getting some form of cancer in their 30's usually breast or colon cancer.
This is either genetics or it is directly being caused from their environment.

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Dr Adequate
Member (Idle past 285 days)
Posts: 16113
Joined: 07-20-2006


Message 19 of 20 (599574)
01-08-2011 11:19 PM
Reply to: Message 18 by barbara
01-08-2011 8:18 PM


Re: Harmful Mutations if constant???
This is either genetics or it is directly being caused from their environment.
Well, there's an interplay between genetics and environment. As someone or other pointed out, if everyone smoked, lung cancer would be a genetic disease. And if everyone had phenylketanuria it would be caused by bad diet.

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fanlynne 
Suspended Member (Idle past 4747 days)
Posts: 3
Joined: 03-29-2011


Message 20 of 20 (610324)
03-29-2011 5:37 AM


If I understand it correctly, it assumes that a successful organism must carry a deleterious mutation of zero copy. This is very wrong: the average human only in the coding sequences of approximately 1,000 harmful genes and functional non-coding regions, and possibly more.
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