Evolutionary Responses to a Constructed Niche: Ancient Mesoamericans as a Model of Gene-Culture Coevolution

Hünemeier, Tábita; Amorim, Carlos Eduardo Guerra; Azevedo, Soledad; Contini, Veronica; Acuña-Alonzo, Víctor; Rothhammer, Francisco; Dugoujon, Jean-Michel; Mazières, Stephane; Barrantes, Ramiro; Villarreal-Molina, María Teresa; Paixão-Côrtes, Vanessa Rodrigues; Salzano, Francisco M.; Canizales-Quinteros, Samuel; Ruiz-Linares, Andres; Bortolini, Maria Cátira

Noteworthy is that other environmental factors may also have been involved in the distribution of the ABCA1 alleles, since cholesterol plays an important role in various infectious processes, such as the entry and replication of Dengue virus type 2 and flaviviral infection [67] . Additionally, the ABCA1 transporter participates in infectious and/or thrombotic disorders involving vesiculation, since homozygous ABCA1 gene deletions confer complete resistance against cerebral malaria in mice [68, 69] . These findings can be considered as additional causal factors to the ABCA1*230Cys selective sweep associated with agricultural development. A sedentary village lifestyle with a corresponding growth in the density of the local population can promote an increase in the mortality rate, particularly in children under 5 years of age [70] . For example, archeological and paleoecological evidence in Europe showed that during the Neolithic demographic transition, the causes of increased infant mortality would have included a lack of drinking water supplies, contamination by feces, emergence of highly virulent zoonoses, as well as an increase in the prevalences of other germs such as Rotavirus and Coronavirus (causing diarrhea, one of the main killers of children under 5 years of age), Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Plasmodium (P. falciparum and P. vivax, which are believed to have emerged more recently), and Herpesvirus [70] . However, the real impact of the ABCA1*230Cys variant in these infectious processes will require additional functional studies.