ANTH 1001 : ANTHROPOLOGY TEST 2 NOTES
Document Summary
The polymorphism is due to heterozygotes having a higher fitness than homozygotes. Heterozygote advantage explains polymorphism: ex: sickle cell allele and malaria, sickle cell. Hemoglobin (hb) consists of two alpha polypeptide chains and two beta polypeptide chains. Each of the alpha chains has 141 amino acids and each of the beta chains has 146 amino acids. The red blood cell (rbc) is a disk shape and hold hb on itself. Some populations in africa, mediterranean area, india, sickle cell allele has a frequency of 5-15%. Much higher than expected considering its negative consequences. Their must be some natural selective advantage: malaria- caused by a parasite (plasmodium); transmitted between individuals by a mosquito (anopheles). Parasite gets into your rbcs and digests the hb and breaks it down into it"s amino acids and makes proteins from it. Parasite increases in number, it will break the rbc allowing the parasite to infect other rbcs: relationship between sickle cell allele and malaria, evidence:
