Photo credit: Gerth
Michael via wikimedia commons. The mountains around San Antonia de los Cobres .
What is more cool than read about environmental
adaptation in humans?
An isolated group of
people living in the Andes have developed a tolerance to arsenic in their water
supply. The discovery is not only the first time humans have been found to have
adapted to arsenic, but it is also “the first known case of humans selection
for tolerance to a toxic chemical”, according to the paper.
Investigators conducted a
study of residents in the northern Argentinean town of San Antonio de los
Cobres. The area is dry and volcanic eruptions have left an arsenic residue
that has entered the local water supply. The residents have inadvertently
responded by evolving the capacity to methylate arsenic, reducing its toxicity
and making it easier to excrete. They found that there was a strong association
between the capacity of people in the area to process arsenic in this way and the
expression of the AS3MT gene (i.e. it producing an enzyme that enables arsenic
metabolism). However, this is the first time a population has been found with
such high rates of AS3MT expression. Those studied were also particularly
likely to have unusual variations in genes located near the AS3MT gene.
When: 10:30 March 17,
2015
Where: Argumentet, Ekologihuset 2nd floor
And Of
course, Fika will be provided!
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