Before The Dawn: Recovering The Lost History Of Our Ancestors

Review: Before The Dawn: Recovering The Lost History Of Our Ancestors
by Nicholas Wade
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Study shows 28,000 year-old Europeans’ DNA was like ours

40,000 years ago, the Cro-Magnoid people – the first people who had a skeleton that looked anatomically modern – entered Europe, coming from Africa. In the July 16 issue of the open-access journal PLoS ONE, a group of geneticists, coordinated by Guido Barbujani and David Caramelli of the Universities of Ferrara and Florence, shows that a Cro-Magnoid individual who lived in Southern Italy 28,000 years ago was a modern European, genetically as well as anatomically.

Battle of sex in genes and the brain

Sex is good for a lot of things. One of the most important is the way in which sex leads to a shuffling of the genetic cards in every individual. Scientists in Cardiff are beginning to build up a picture of what certain genes are doing in the brain and how they affect behaviour. The results, delegates were told in Geneva today, could help researchers find the causes for conditions such as autism.

Scientists make gene link to African HIV epidemic

Communist terrorist subsubhuman.

A genetic variant peculiar to Africans substantially raises their risk of infection with HIV, according to research that suggests evolved susceptibility may be helping to drive the continent’s Aids epidemic.

The Migration History of Humans: DNA Study Traces Human Origins Across the Continents

A development company controlled by Osama bin Laden’s half brother revealed last year that it wants to build a bridge that will span the Bab el Mandeb, the outlet of the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. If this ambitious project is ever realized, the throngs of African pilgrims who traverse one of the longest bridges in the world on a journey to Mecca would pass hundreds of feet above the probable route of the most memorable journey in human history. Fifty or sixty thousand years ago a small band of Africans—a few hundred or even several thousand—crossed the strait in tiny boats, never to return.

Study finds genetic link to violence, delinquency

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three genes may play a strong role in determining why some young men raised in rough neighborhoods or deprived families become violent criminals, while others do not, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

8,700 year old clock gene selected in non-Africans

Period 2 (PER2) is a key component of the mammalian circadian clock machinery. In humans, genetic variation of clock genes or chronic disturbance of circadian rhythmicity has been implied in the onset of several phenotypes, ranging from periodic insomnias to advanced or delayed sleep phases, to more severe disorders. Peculiar geographic diversity patterns in circadian genes might represent an adaptive response to different light/dark cycles or environmental changes to which different human populations are exposed. To investigate the degree and nature of PER2 gene variation in human populations of different geographic origin, and its possible correlation with different latitudes, we sequenced a 7.7 kb portion of the gene in 20 individuals worldwide. In total, 25 variable sites were identified. The geographic distribution of haplotypes defined by five polymorphic sites was analyzed in 499 individuals from 11 populations from four continents. No evidence for latitude-driven selective effects on PER2 genetic variability was found. However, a high and significant difference in the geographic distribution of PER2 polymorphisms was observed between Africans and non-Africans, suggesting a history of geographically restricted natural selection at this locus. In support of this notion, we found several signals for selection in the sequences. The putative selected haplotype showed a recent coalescent age (8.7 Kyr), and an unusually high frequency in non-African populations. Overall, these findings indicate that a human clock-relevant gene, PER2, might have been influenced by positive selection, and offer preliminary insights into the evolution of this functional class of genes.

Genes, Brains, and Primates

Citation: Reinius B, Saetre P, Leonard JA, Blekhman R, Merino-Martinez R, et al. (2008) An Evolutionarily Conserved Sexual Signature in the Primate Brain. PLoS Genet 4(6): e1000100. doi:10.1371/ journal.pgen. 1000100
An Evolutionarily Conserved Sexual Signature in the Primate Brain
Björn Reinius1, Peter Saetre1,2, Jennifer A. Leonard3, Ran Blekhman4, Roxana Merino-Martinez5, Yoav Gilad4, Elena Jazin1*
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All in the mind

Findings of an excess of de novo structural variants in cases of autism and schizophrenia have raised hopes that neuropsychiatric conditions may yet prove genetically tractable. Past experience suggests that success in finding causative variants will require exceptional rigor and caution.

Sex differences in spatial cognition

Title Sex differences in spatial cognition among Hadza foragers: A reconsideration of the gathering hypothesis

Author/s 1. Elizabeth Cashdan, University of Utah, USA;
2. Frank Marlowe, Florida State University, USA;

Abstract Men and women differ in spatial abilities and navigational styles. One popular explanation holds that superior male spatial ability evolved in response to the navigational challenges of hunting mobile prey, whereas a female advantage in object location memory evolved in response to the needs of gathering stationary plants (“gathering hypothesis” ). We are evaluating these and related hypotheses among Hadza foragers by looking for functional relationships between cognitive abilities, performance at more naturalistic tasks that might require these abilities, and behavioral outcomes in various domains. Thus far we have found that a female advantage in object-location memory appeared only among young Hadza adults, while older women did poorly at this task. Yet these older women appear to excel at finding bushfoods, and younger women rely on their guidance. Among the Hadza, therefore, doing well on our object location memory task does not appear to be important in the navigational challenges of gathering. Older women reportedly excel because of their greater knowledge about temporal changes in the spatial distribution of plant resources. We do not yet have results bearing on the hunting hypothesis, but we have found that Hadza men do better than women at geometric spatial tasks, as has been found in other populations. We are analyzing our behavioral data on hunting and navigation to see whether foraging range size and hunting skill are associated with greater performance at geometrical spatial tasks, and whether there are any direct fitness benefits associated with these abilities.

GENETIC EVIDENCE ON THE ORIGINS OF INDIAN CASTE

Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations
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Society’s attitudes have little impact on choice of sexual partner

A unique new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institute suggests that the attitude of families and the public have little impact on if adults decide to have sex with persons of the same or the opposite sex. Instead, hereditary factors and the individual’s unique experiences have the strongest influence on our choice of sexual partners.

New research refutes myth of pure Scandinavian race

What does it mean to be genetically “pure”? What a straw man. Note the obvious and weird political speechifying from Linea (We’re all Africans!) Melchior. You’d think that she’s a communications rep. for the immigrationist lobby and not an impartial, apolitical scientist. But like Charles Murray noted years ago: “When it comes to race science is corrupt.”

Interesting but likely to be the exception, a trading community or some such. Rural agricultural communities would be expected to be populated by much less diverse local populations in the main just as they are today.

“All of our ancestors, no matter when they arrived have contributed to our history and the development of our lifestyle,” explains Linea Melchior. “Indeed, Danish identity is more a definition of where one is physically located and lives today than a question of our past history - since we’re all originally african in origin. That we ended up in Europe was accidental, which is in itself remarkable”.

THE JOURNEY OF MAN: A GENETIC ODYSSEY

Spencer Wells, Genetic Anthropologist, on the first Great Migrations
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Genetic mutation linked to walking on all 4s

This is a load of absolute rubbish - those effected individuals can not walk on two legs as well as bonobos, that spend up to a third of their time walking on TWO legs. They can not only walk considerable distances, but they can carry young on their back and manipulate treats (eg, cane sugar, fruit etc) at the same time, i.e. while they are walking. If these individuals have a missing gene, then the missing gene is not missing from pan paniscus.

Infectious Evolution: ancient virus hit apes, not our ancestors, in the genes

A vicious virus infected ancestral chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa between 4 million and 3 million years ago. Not only did it kill a great many of these primates, but it also infiltrated the surviving animals’ genomes, altering the course of evolution. That’s the picture emerging from a new analysis of modern-primate DNA.
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Humanity was genetically divided for as much as 100,000 years

The human race was divided into two separate groups within Africa for as much as half of its existence, says a Tel Aviv University mathematician. Climate change, reduction in populations and harsh conditions may have caused and maintained the separation.

Central European Nobility DNA Project

Here is an interesting project to use DNA analysis in order to determine the origins of the noble families of Central Europe here.

An Open Letter To National Review’s Jim Manzi On “Escaping the Tyranny of Genes”

I’ve thought some more about why your National Review cover story “Escaping the Tyranny of Genes,” [June 2, 2008], into which you clearly put a lot of effort, is getting such a skeptical reaction from the small number of people whose respect you should worry about. (For example, I’m told that Richard Lynn, when he came to the part about the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study, simply stopped reading your article.)

See also National Review “Determined” To Ignore Realities Of Genetics.

Genetic testing for everyone

Published online 28 May 2008 | Nature 453, 570-571 (2008) | doi:10.1038/ 453570a

Private companies are starting to test customers’ DNA for gene variants linked to an increased risk of conditions such as obesity or Alzheimer’s disease. Helen Pearson looks at whether knowledge really is power when it comes to disease avoidance.
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