Evolution and G6PD Deficiency

Evolution takes place over thousands of years, when I asked about evolution, I was looking for an answer that had the same scope. I wasn't not talking about the past few decades, but the past few thousand years. So while some made very valid comments on botox and the nebulous cultural standards of beauty, the answer I liked best looked at the bigger picture and had some specific examples to support his thoughts.

M Fawlful made a good point about many genetic diseases becoming apparent later in life. These inherited diseases have no effect on the mating fitness of an individual. M Fawlful also stated that individuals heterozygous for the disease can actually be more fit and produce more affected progeny versus unaffected homozygotes. It's why some populations in Africa have sickle cell anemia; G6PD deficiency confers resistance to falciparum malaria (one of the biggest infectious killers in Africa).

The thing is, in developed countries, our environment is no longer selecting for any physical trait in particular. It is no longer putting a selective pressure against the unfit, because humankind has changed the environment to fit its needs.

We have made homes with air conditioning, built supermarkets and awesome hospitals, developed vaccines against polio and tetanus, for example. These allow everyone to live and thrive, regardless of their physical fitness or their potential skills as a hunter/provider.

A lot of you mentioned ugliness or perceived physical beauty was irrelevant when we're talking about sexual fitness, but I'm still not convinced. An individual's preference, influenced by upbringing or whatever, doesn't have as much influence on the evolutionary progress of a species. People are instinctively drawn to people who look a certain way. Having a symmetrical face is a sign of physical fitness. Having wide hips and large breasts is a good indication of a female's fertility, for example. That's what I mean by good-looks, but I digress.

Another good point made by many of you is that mutations are always popping up in our genomes, and these mutations lead to birth defects and weird traits like a long neck or whatever. Given that these mutations are the substrate on which evolution can take its course and new ones constantly pop up in every generation, ugliness and new genetic diseases can never be completely eradicated.

Ultimately, M Fawlful, I picked your comment out of the many great comments by Bellingham, Ghevrix, GMSoccerPicks, Inverse, Procras, Gareth Thomas, DS, Bersercules, Mekkor, Clueless Dolphin, Equalz, Electric Addict, Lars, Twist of Events, H., Maxe's Maze, Natural One, ason31, neversettleforsecond, Michael Westside, Randall A., Shaw, Timothy Bowen, Kid Shuffle, convictus, and last but not least, Bulletproof Zombie. To everyone who contributed to this very interesting discussion, thank you. To the people who have followed this website since July, thank you for your continued support. TheTruthAboutGenetics.com has 200 followers now.

Sources linked directly above.

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