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IMMUNE STRENGTHENING. “Netea and his colleagues tested the ability of the toll-like receptors to react to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that caused the Black Death. They found that the strength of the immune response varied depending on the exact sequence of the toll-like receptor genes.” https://lnkd.in/gWy9UtF View in LinkedIn

CHALLENGING. "When species differ in both ecological and sexual characters, it is notoriously difficult to distinguish between character divergence that is a cause or a result of species divergence." https://lnkd.in/ggrcHvH View in LinkedIn

GENOME MODIFICATION. “The plague did write itself into human genomes: The descendants of plague-affected populations share certain changes in some immune genes.” https://lnkd.in/ggGWR4A View in LinkedIn

Beyond Catalonia: pro-independence movements in Europe View in LinkedIn

POSITIVE SELECTION. “Geneticists know that human populations evolve in the face of disease. Certain versions of our genes help us fight infections better than others, and people who carry those genes tend to have more children than those who don’t. So the beneficial genetic versions persist, while other versions tend to disappear as those carrying them die. This weeding-out of all but the best genes is called positive selection.” https://lnkd.in/gWy9UtF View in LinkedIn

THE OLD AND WEAK. “Scientists long believed that the Black Death killed indiscriminately. But DeWitte's previous research found the plague was like many sicknesses: It preferentially killed the very old and those already in poor health.” https://lnkd.in/ggGWR4A View in LinkedIn

CONSTRAINTS. "When the sexes have different optimal values for such traits, a shared genetic architecture can constrain them from evolving toward their respective trait optima." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM. "Speciation is inhibited when the genetic basis of male and female ecological traits allows the sexes to diverge substantially. This is because sexual dimorphism, which can evolve quickly, can eliminate the frequency-dependent disruptive selection that would have provided the impetus for speciation." https://lnkd.in/gkBNC3c View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first weekend focused on the European Black Death. Beyond the biology of the selective pressure such a plague has on strengthening a population by winnowing out the weak, one impressive aspect of this particular bacteria is the cultural impact. The church weakened, the labor class strengthened, medicine took an uptick, art was no longer simply religious, and food was more available because there were less mouths to feed. One bacteria changed society forever. View in LinkedIn

“FEAR OF INFECTION led many people to isolate themselves from others, thereby further contributing to social chaos and individual anxiety and depression. The fear for one's own life and the lives of loved ones was rational and perhaps useful under the circumstances. Rational fear, however, often became transformed into panic, and at times panic led to rage and the adoption of bizarre practices. Some extremists became flagellants, whipping their bodies bloody as they marched from town to town, proclaiming that the plague was a well-deserved punishment from God.” https://lnkd.in/giSpPWR View in LinkedIn