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 19:03:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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566 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher Tracey writes:
> 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?
Uh, sure. I was mostly kidding, but that's cool! Good luck with grad school.
> > 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.
[snip a tentative agreement to the first half of my conjecture]
>
> The problem with you example is that it isn't entirely genetic drift that will
> keep our urges in check.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean that it's impossible for us to
have gene (or polygene) that tells us not to procreate so much? That can't be
it, because that's wrong. The drift won't keep our urges in check, but 'our'
(it's more correct to say 'their') new "weak abstinence" gene will.
> 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.
I think that the victims of infection dying counts as selection as long as they
can no longer breed. Right?
> There is no way for resistance to evolve in a population.
Sure there is...well not exactly resistance... If two people are born on the
same day, begin growing up, one of them starts experimenting sexually at
thirteen and get's an HIV infection, but the other waits until eighteen when
their knowledge and discipline allow them to more fully practice safe sex. If
we posit that the age at which sexual curiosity is piqued is genetically based,
then the ones who start earlier die off and reproduce less. The genome drifts
toward the one of the survivors. That's just one example. The gene could
control life-long desire to copulate, etc.
> 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.
I don't follow.
> Genetic drift/selection probably won't be a barrier to the virus's spread.
Again. Maybe I'm missing your whole point...or you were mine. I'm not sure.
> btw. your example was quite Lamarkian evolution in nature- evolution doesn't
> really work that way...
I don't think so. This furthers my assumption that I miscommunicated, or you
read something into it. I'm very familiar with the basics of genetics. (That
is VERY familiar compared to the average citizen, but I'm sure I know quite
little compared to you. :-) Does my further elaboration convince you that I
wasn't proposing a Lamarkian scheme of inheritance?
Chris
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) Thanks! (...) Umm.. It's possible. There is certainaly variation in how people conduct their sexual lives, but I am not sure if that is genetically or socially induced. Maybe a little of both. So where does the 'weak abstinance gene' arrise (...) (25 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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| (...) 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? (...) Maybe... When a population that (...) (25 years ago, 9-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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