Local adaptation predicts type of psychiatric disorder?

Angela

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I'd want to see more studies on this. They seem to have charted the types of psychiatric disorders by area of Europe, finding more depression and bi-polar disorder in northern Europe and slightly more schizophrenia in southern Europe.

Those skews have been known for a long time, i.e. high levels of depression in Ireland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe. However, I thought Ireland had high levels of schizophrenia as well, if not Scandinavia.

Be that as it may, the authors seems to be saying that local adaptation to climate is the reason, as in hours of darkness and cloud cover in the north.

While I think that may be part of the explanation, I think there may be more to it than that. Neanderthals and HGs in general had more snps for these disorders, didn't they? Although, I suppose you could say climate affected selection in those cases as well.

See:
https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13073-018-0532-7

"[h=2]Abstract[/h][FONT=&quot][h=3]Background[/h]Recent studies have used genome-wide data to investigate evolutionary mechanisms related to behavioral phenotypes, identifying widespread signals of positive selection. Here, we conducted a genome-wide investigation to study whether the molecular mechanisms involved in these traits were affected by local adaptation.
[h=3]Methods[/h]We performed a polygenic risk score analysis in a sample of 2455 individuals from 23 European populations with respect to variables related to geo-climate diversity, pathogen diversity, and language phonological complexity. The analysis was adjusted for the genetic diversity of European populations to ensure that the differences detected would reflect differences in environmental exposures.
[h=3]Results[/h]The top finding was related to the association between winter minimum temperature and schizophrenia. Additional significant geo-climate results were also observed with respect to bipolar disorder (sunny daylight), depressive symptoms (precipitation rate), major depressive disorder (precipitation rate), and subjective well-being (relative humidity). Beyond geo-climate variables, we also observed findings related to pathogen diversity and language phonological complexity: openness to experience was associated with protozoan diversity; conscientiousness and extraversion were associated with language consonants.
[h=3]Conclusions[/h][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]We report that common variation associated with psychiatric disorders and behavioral traits was affected by processes related to local adaptation in European populations."[/FONT]
 
"Beyond geo-climate variables, we also observed findings related to pathogen diversity and language phonological complexity: openness to experience was associated with protozoan diversity; conscientiousness and extraversion were associated with language consonants".

this is really unexpected - your openness depends on

330px-Protozoa_collage_2.jpg

single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, which feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protozoa

Unbelievable we are so very much connected in this world even with single-celled organisms...
 

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