Detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults (Adult Treatment Panel III)

CHAPTER 24 – Evolution of Protein Molecules

So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Appendix I: List of Statistical Fact Sheets. URL: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=2007

We wish to thank Drs Brian Eigel and Michael Wolz for their valuable comments and contributions. We would like to acknowledge Tim Anderson and Tom Schneider for their editorial contributions and Karen Modesitt for her administrative assistance.

Disclosures 



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# Summary {#article-title-2}

Each year, the American Heart Association, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies, brings together the most up-to-date statistics on heart disease, stroke, other vascular diseases, and their risk factors and presents them in its Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update. The Statistical Update is a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians, healthcare policy makers, media professionals, the lay public, and many others who seek the best national data available on disease …

Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2010 Update A Report From the American Heart Association

The applications of human and medical genetics raise many societal and ethical problems. This paper deals with a variety of such issues posed by current and future developments in genetic counseling, genetic screening, prenatal and predictive diagnosis, and gene therapy. The promise and problems of behavioral genetics are discussed. Problems of privacy, decision making, societal pressures, stigmatization, and informed consent to genetic study are raised. Use of genetic data by insurance companies or other public groups is discussed. The rapid unfolding of genetic information affecting human health and disease is producing difficult dilemmas. New problems are likely to surface, but human ingenuity and rationality is likely to find just and compassionate solutions in most settings.

Societal problems in human and medical genetics.

Molecular Genetics of Hypertension

The future organization of our complex health care system and its regulation will be an important factor in personnel requirements in medical genetics. There are many problems. Over 40 million people are uninsured. How can we provide appropriate genetic services to this underserved population, and how should that be done? Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are here to stay for some time. To reduce costs, these organizations utilize cost-effectiveness analysis to define the needs for genetic services. A likely outcome is increasing utilization of genetic counselors, rather than of medical geneticists in HMO settings, which is already happening in cancer genetics. There is likely to be more patient education in matters of genetics with attention to prevention—a welcome development. The specific organization of various genetic services and the role of genetics in medical care is difficult to predict at this time and will depend on scientific developments and how health care in the U.S.A. will be administered in the future. There is no question, however, that our field of science and practice will play an important role in the medicine of the future.

Some Future Directions in Medical Genetics

Most common diseases have a genetic component. Multiple genes interacting with the environment are usually operative. Heterogeneity in etiology often occurs. Differences between monogenic and common diseases are outlined. Utilization of intermediate phenotypes rather than of the common disease per se as the diagnostic trait may be helpful for genetic analysis. Various genetic approaches with particular emphasis on linkage and association studies are discussed.

Genetic Approaches to Common Diseases

Scope and Conceptual Difficulties of Human Behavior Genetics. A survey of the genetic aspects of evolution has shown great similarity between human beings and higher nonhuman primates in chromosomes, proteins, and in many other genetically determined characters. The human species differs substantially in only one characteristic: language and abstract thinking. No other species can look into the past nor into the future! The analysis of the essential differences between man and other species must therefore be directed to the brain — the organ of thought and language. These characteristics have enabled our species to supplement biologic evolution with “cultural evolution,” with all its consequences for creation of human civilizations and for alteration in life style (Table 7.1). The uniqueness of the human brain that allowed these developments is part of our genetic heritage.

Arno G. Motulsky

Papers

Societal problems in human and medical genetics.

Molecular Genetics of Hypertension

Some Future Directions in Medical Genetics

Genetic Approaches to Common Diseases

Genetics and Human Behavior