Dangerous liaisons: human genetic adaptation to infectious agents

Abstract

The study of the demographic and adaptive history of Homo sapiens has entered its golden age with the advent of genome-wide approaches. The analyses of genome diversity across different human populations have allowed us to better understand the ways in which our species rapidly dispersed around the world, how our ancestors admixed with archaic, now-extinct hominins, and the effects of natural selection on the diversity of the human genome. This work has, in turn, made it possible to increase our understanding of the genetic mechanisms by which humans have adapted to the wide range of environments they have encountered. These studies, combined with functional genomics approaches, have helped to identify genes and biological functions of key importance for host survival against pathogens and involved in the phenotypic variability of our species, including the risk to develop infectious, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Keywords

• Evolution
• Genetics
• Adaptation
• Humans
• Pathogens
• Immunity