[On sickle-anemia mutation protecting against malaria]
If this is such a great mutation, why do we have a national organization to help people who have it?
123 Christian Forums
[10/29/2005 12:00:00 AM]
Fundie Index: 3
Here, it's simple, the shape of the cells protects against malaria, but it can also be detrimental to health, but not as much as fucking malaria
10/29/2005 3:14:55 PM
It's evolutionary pressure from both sides, malaria is a problem and so is sickle - cell anemia, but the latter protects against the former, which is why it survived.
10/29/2005 6:32:12 PM
It's great for people who live in Africa. Sucks if you get two copies of the sickle-cell allele, but if you get only one you're not only immune to malaria but also don't get any significant symptoms of sickle-cell (unless you live at high altitudes).
Which might explain why blacks get sickle-cell far more often than whites do, for that matter ... heterozygotes are strongly favored in malaria-infested areas because people with \"normal\" genes die from malaria and people with two sickle-cell alleles die from sickle-cell. No such selective advantage exists in the US (or Europe).
10/30/2005 3:38:08 AM
If \"The Truth\" is so obvious, why do you need a book to push your ideas at people?
10/31/2005 7:44:34 PM
Darwin's Lil Girl
Because only one copy of the gene is nessesary for protection against malaria. Two gives you the desease.
1/5/2008 5:48:26 AM
Because ONE copy of the gene is protective against malaria. People with sickle cell disease have 2 copies. The fitness benefits of protection against malaria in the hetrozygotes outweighs the fitness cost of the disease in the homozygous recessive individuals. Selection works on genes, not on individuals.
1/5/2008 6:01:15 AM
Because the benefit of having protection against Malaria far outweighed the impact of the anemia it can cause.
I have no idea why I even bothered explaining.
7/24/2009 10:04:17 AM
Why are people this stupid given food?
10/3/2011 10:32:51 PM
Because it triggers other problems like bad oxygenation. This mutation, is not great at all, and the malaria protection is just a side effect.
12/9/2011 8:23:49 AM