Subject:
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Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 9 May 2000 17:09:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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439 times
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Christopher Weeks wrote:
> Are there any population ecologists out there?
Me = B.S. Ecology and Evolution specializing in quantitative genetics and
population genetics. I start grad school in the fall working on population
ecology and conservation genetics. Is that close enough?
> Could it be that when there gets to be too many of a given organism in a
> localle, and predation isn't taking care of it, diseases become a likely vector
> for population control. Maybe (if AIDS turns out to be as big a threat as
> some suggest) some genetic drift will occur from this causing us as an organism
> to be able to keep it in our pants a bit more.
Maybe... When a population that is undergoing density-dependent growth any
combination of events can keep a population in check. These can be starvation,
predation, infection, infanticide, etc... Disease can end up being a control
when there are too many individuals in an area, because the distance between
individuals is shorter. So, the first part of your answer is more or less
correct.
(I read a paper on this idea but i can't remember the author)
The problem with you example is that it isn't entirely genetic drift that will
keep our urges in check. The way HIv/AIDS works is that it doesn't (visibly)
affect the host until much later after infection. Selection cannot act
upon something it cannot see. There is no way for resistance to evolve in
a population. I imagine there is enough variation in the population of
humans to have some that don't 'sleep around' up to the 'Wilt Chamberlin
effect' However, there aren't many barriers to divide these two groups.
Genetic drift/selection probably won't be a barrier to the virus's spread.
btw. your example was quite Lamarkian evolution in nature- evolution doesn't
really work that way...
> Those who can keep their urges in check, will survive nicely.
in theory yes(i hope)
-chris
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) Uh, sure. I was mostly kidding, but that's cool! Good luck with grad school. (...) vector (...) organism (...) [snip a tentative agreement to the first half of my conjecture] (...) I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean that it's (...) (24 years ago, 9-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) Are there any population ecologists out there? Could it be that when there gets to be too many of a given organism in a localle, and predation isn't taking care of it, diseases become a likely vector for population control. Maybe (if AIDS (...) (24 years ago, 9-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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