LiveScience.com - Hundreds of Human Genes Still Evolving: "The new study links genetic changes to major events in the history of our species. There have been a lot of recent changes the advent of agriculture, shifts in diet, new habitats, climatic changes over the past 10,000 years,' said Jonathan Pritchard, a human geneticist at the University of Chicago who led the study.
Many genes were found to be evolving in all three of the human populations studied. The specific functions of many of the genes are not known, but the researchers were able to separate them into broad categories. These categories include:
- Olfaction: the researchers found many genes important for taste and smell
- Reproduction: involved in things like sperm mobility and egg fertilization
- Increasing brain size
- Bone development and skeletal changes
- Carbohydrate metabolism: positive selection was observed for genes involved in breaking down mannose in Yorubans, sucrose in East Asians, and lactose for Europeans. (Mannose is a sweet secretion found in some trees and shrubs, sucrose
is common table sugar, and lactose is a sugar found in milk.) - Disease resistance and pathogen protection
- Metabolism of foreign compounds, such as exotic plant proteins or animal toxins "
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