Essay Example on How Has Infection Shaped the Human Genome?
Just as programming languages code for aspects of robotics and AI, the human genome is the code human beings are created from. Only the genetic code is more complicated, and we know far little about how it works and how to change it. The human genome is made of 23 chromosomes which are made up of genes and they themselves are made up of codons. This continues into such as minute detail that it is difficult to explain. The theories within genomics barely began until the late 19th century and it would be many decades before any experiments took place to investigate the ideas. For many decades, the idea of the genome was so nearly thought of that reading the works of men like Mendel, who established the principles of dominant and recessive genes, one can hardly miss the clear reference to what is now known as the genome. It wasn’t until 1953 that the structure of DNA Crick and Watson was discovered and so began the next almost 70 years of discovery and experimentation into the genome.
In contrast to the genome, we have known much about infection for many centuries, millennia even in theory. Infection as a term is present in the 14th century and can be seen in the centuries that followed, appearing in famous literature such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Though we may not have understood the causes of them or the treatment we knew of them. As we understand more about the genome, we can understand how infection can affect it.
Infection introduces a natural condition which encourages adaptation in the genome. Natural selection is credited for the most part to Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. The theory of evolution was discovered simultaneously by two scientists, Darwin and Wallace. It is the idea that under certain pressures those with beneficial traits will survive, this leads to a shift of the entire species as those with these traits are more likely to survive. In recent years, we have expanded on the ideas of Darwin and Wallace. We have found that these adaptations can lead to a change in the genome itself. If some humans have a mutation in their genes that helps them to combat infections or make them less susceptible to them then they are more likely to live and reproduce.
Those with a mutation which helps them to resist infection are less likely to die from it. Slowly the human population would have all grown to have such a mutation. Different areas are subject to different diseases and therefore certain areas develop different adaptations to cope with this. One of the first scientists to propose this theory of infection as an evolutionary driver was J.B.S Haldane (1892 - 1964). He believed that infection has long been acting as a selection pressure and should be considered a major factor in how the human race has evolves.
