Cultural Selection and Genetic Diversity in Humans

Whitehead, Hal; Richerson, Peter J.; Boyd, Richard

doi:10.1556/select.3.2002.1.9

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The selection for increased LINE1 suppressors in the human lineage may be a consequence of a population bottleneck created by a combination of factors, such as pandemic pathogens or extreme climate change. A speculative hypothesis suggests that less (but not null) genomic variability in humans could have contributed to increased cultural evolution 79 .…”

Section: Box 1 | Evolutionary Impact Of Mobile Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile DNA elements in the generation of diversity and complexity in the brain

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mobile elements are DNA sequences that can change their position (retrotranspose) within the genome. Although its biological function is largely unappreciated, DNA derived from mobile elements comprises nearly half of the human genome. It has long been thought that neuronal genomes are invariable; however, recent studies have demonstrated that mobile elements actively retrotranspose during neurogenesis, thereby creating genomic diversity between neurons. In addition, mounting data demonstrate that mobile elements are misregulated in certain neurological disorders, including Rett syndrome and schizophrenia.

show abstract

Section: Box 1 | Evolutionary Impact Of Mobile Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile DNA elements in the generation of diversity and complexity in the brain

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, this process is somewhat different from the culturally driven ecological speciation of killer whales, and the killer whale scenario is likely rare (20) and maybe unique. Cultural hitchhiking producing low genetic diversity may also be rare, because it requires quite stable groups of relatives with quite stable functionally important cultures producing consistent fitness differentials; cultural hitchhiking works much more efficiently if the cultural groups are sympatric (26,57).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, models have shown that the remarkably low levels of human genetic diversity could result from culturally mediated population structure (25) or from selectively important cultures being transmitted in parallel with neutral genes (26). However, there is no strong empirical evidence for either of these processes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gene–culture coevolution in whales and dolphins

Whitehead

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Whales and dolphins (Cetacea) have excellent social learning skills as well as a long and strong mother-calf bond. These features produce stable cultures, and, in some species, sympatric groups with different cultures. There is evidence and speculation that this cultural transmission of behavior has affected gene distributions. Culture seems to have driven killer whales into distinct ecotypes, which may be incipient species or subspecies. There are ecotypespecific signals of selection in functional genes that correspond to cultural foraging behavior and habitat use by the different ecotypes. The five species of whale with matrilineal social systems have remarkably low diversity of mtDNA. Cultural hitchhiking, the transmission of functionally neutral genes in parallel with selective cultural traits, is a plausible hypothesis for this low diversity, especially in sperm whales. In killer whales the ecotype divisions, together with founding bottlenecks, selection, and cultural hitchhiking, likely explain the low mtDNA diversity. Several cetacean species show habitat-specific distributions of mtDNA haplotypes, probably the result of mother-offspring cultural transmission of migration routes or destinations. In bottlenose dolphins, remarkable small-scale differences in haplotype distribution result from maternal cultural transmission of foraging methods, and largescale redistributions of sperm whale cultural clans in the Pacific have likely changed mitochondrial genetic geography. With the acceleration of genomics new results should come fast, but understanding gene-culture coevolution will be hampered by the measured pace of research on the socio-cultural side of cetacean biology.gene-culture coevolution | Cetacea | cultural hitchhiking E volution is dependent on inheritance. Although the transmission of genes is primary, it is not the only mode of inheritance. As recently articulated in the extended evolutionary synthesis, inheritance extends beyond genes to include epigenetic inheritance, physiological inheritance, ecological inheritance, social transmission, and cultural inheritance, all of which can lead to heritability of phenotype (1). From the perspective of modern humans, cultural inheritance, which directly determines much of our own behavior as well as indirectly determining how we affect the global environment, has particular salience (2).Culture, as an inheritance system, can be defined as behavior or information shared within a community that is acquired from conspecifics through some form of social learning (3), i.e., learning that is influenced by observation of, or interaction with, another animal or its products (4). Social learning comes in a range of forms including imitation, emulation, teaching, and local enhancement (5), all of which can promote behavioral similarity between learner and model. Culture may include a wide range of behavior, including foraging methods, vocalizations, diet selection, social behavior, movement, habitat use, social structure, and play (e.g., refs. 3 and 6); potentiall...

show abstract

“…Whitehead and colleagues (31) have shown that cultural hitchhiking suppresses genetic diversity in structured populations when genes and cultural traits are transmitted symmetrically, gene flow is low, intergroup cultural transmission is rare, and cultural evolution is rapid. However, their model of Late Pleistocene humans assumes that cultural traits-not genesdirectly and substantially affect reproductive fitness, such that ''culturally advanced'' groups outcompete others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture, population structure, and low genetic diversity in Pleistocene hominins

Premo

Hublin

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Paleogenomic research has shown that modern humans, Neanderthals, and their most recent common ancestor have displayed less genetic diversity than living great apes. The traditional interpretation that low levels of genetic diversity in modern humans resulted from a relatively recent demographic bottleneck cannot account for similarly low levels of genetic diversity in Middle Pleistocene hominins. A more parsimonious hypothesis proposes that the effective population size of the human lineage has been low for more than 500,000 years, but the mechanism responsible for suppressing genetic diversity in Pleistocene hominin populations without similarly affecting that of their hominoid contemporaries remains unknown. Here we use agent-based simulation to study the effect of culturally mediated migration on neutral genetic diversity in structured populations. We show that, in populations structured by culturally mediated migration, selection can suppress neutral genetic diversity over thousands of generations, even in the absence of bottlenecks or expansions in census population size. In other words, selection could have suppressed the effective population size of Pleistocene hominins for as long as the degree of cultural similarity between regionally differentiated groups played an important role in mediating intraspecific gene flow.culturally mediated migration ͉ human evolution ͉ Middle Pleistocene ͉ structured populations ͉ agent-based simulation M odern humans display less genetic diversity than great apes, a puzzling finding given our much larger census population size (1, 2). Interestingly, recent studies have shown that modern humans are not the only hominins characterized by comparatively low levels of genetic diversity. The variability of Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA is on par with that found in modern humans (3-5). More importantly, the effective population size of the common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals was recently estimated at 9,999 (95% CI: 9,603-10,335)*, concurring with Noonan et al.'s (6) assumption that the effective population size of the common ancestor was similar to that of modern humans, Ϸ10 4 . Why are all 3 of these Pleistocene hominin populations characterized by levels of genetic diversity that are lower than those found in extant great apes?Modern human genetic diversity has previously been explained as resulting from a relatively recent demographic expansion from a small population (7, 8) that probably exhibited geographic structure (9, 10). It is worth noting that some genetic loci do not match the expectations of this bottleneck scenario (9,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). At any rate, its timing-sometime between 30,000 and 130,000 years ago (9)-is too recent to account for the low level of genetic diversity in the modern human-Neanderthal common ancestor, unless the population bottleneck was very long (7). Others have interpreted characteristics of modern human genetic diversity as resulting from a geographic expansion that started from a single origin in subSaharan Africa and unfo...

show abstract

Cultural Selection and Genetic Diversity in Humans

Cited by 15 publications

References 29 publications

Mobile DNA elements in the generation of diversity and complexity in the brain

Mobile DNA elements in the generation of diversity and complexity in the brain

Gene–culture coevolution in whales and dolphins

Culture, population structure, and low genetic diversity in Pleistocene hominins

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About