Testing the evolutionary basis of the predictive adaptive response hypothesis in a preindustrial human population.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

The thrifty phenotype hypothesis proposes that late-life metabolic diseases result from mismatch between early-life and adulthood nutrition. More recently, the predictive adaptive response (PAR) hypothesis has suggested that poor early-life environmental conditions induce metabolic changes that maximize health and fitness in similarly poor adult conditions, but reduce fitness if conditions later improve. Therefore, later-life survival and reproduction should be maximized where environmental conditions during development and adulthood match, but few studies in humans have addressed the consequences of poor early conditions on fitness traits in varying later conditions.

Methodology

We tested key evolutionary predictions of the PAR hypothesis using det

SUBMITTER: Hayward AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3868390 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature