Time Travel Via DNA Sequencing
“It is among the fastest examples of natural selection ever detected in humans.”
By now it’s commonplace to explore one’s family roots through DNA analysis. DNA analysis is also used regularly in crime work. Archeological research is another application.
An example of the latter is reported in How the Black Death Changed Our Immune Systems by Ann Gibbons in the October 21, 2022 issue of AAAS’ Science.
Researchers compared the genes from buried corpses of people known to have died during the plague in 1348 or 1349 with those who survived but later died. What researchers found was significant. One particular gene found in those who died later produces a protein associated with immunity to threatening viruses. DNA comparisons of those who died later in London and in Denmark with plague deaths showed significantly higher presence of the “protective“ gene.
One population geneticist remarked upon learning of the findings, “It is among the fastest examples of natural selection ever detected in humans.” The article concludes with a wry comment by evolutionary biologist Tom Gilbert: “But wouldn’t it be awesome if it [the plague] went away because we became immune not just because we have better hygiene?“
Consider these findings in light of our ongoing pandemic. New varieties of Covid continue to emerge despite our best efforts to vaccinate the population. It’s as if we’re experiencing a massive and deadly global game of whack-a-mole. Viruses evolve, we develop more vaccines, some people develop and potentially pass on some sort of immunity – and some people still get sick or die. Meanwhile, people travel and move around the globe, desperate for a return to “normalcy,“ thus making viral spread — and continued genetic mutation of the virus — inevitable.
Where will it all end? If only we could predict how these “protective genes” — assuming they exist for Covid — will evolve!
Copyright 2022 by Dennis, D. McDonald
