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Evolution of Human Hypoxia Tolerance Physiology

  • Chapter
Oxygen Sensing

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 475))

Abstract

Analysis of human responses to hypobaric hypoxia in different lineages (lowlanders, Andean natives, Himalayan natives, and East Africans) indicates ‘conservative’ and ‘adaptable’ physiological characters involved in human responses to hypoxia. Conservative characters, arising by common descent, dominant and indeed define human physiology, but in five hypoxia response systems analyzed, we also found evidence for ‘adaptable’ characters at all levels of organization in all three high altitude lineages. Since Andeans and Himalayans have not shared common ancestry with East Africans for most of our species history, we suggest that their similar hypoxia physiology may represent the ‘ancestral’ condition for humans - an interpretation consistent with recent evidence indicating that our species evolved under ‘colder, drier, and higher’ conditions in East Africa where the phenotype would be simultaneously advantageous for endurance performance and for high altitude hypoxia. It is presumed that the phenotype was retained in low capacity form in highlanders and in higher capacity form in most lowland lineages (where it would be recognized by most physiologists as an endurance performance phenotype). Interestingly, it is easier for modern molecular evolution theory to account for the origin of ‘adaptable’ characters through positive selection than for conserved traits. Many conserved physiological systems are composed of so many gene products that it seems difficult to account for their unchanging state (for unchanging structure and function of hundreds of proteins linked in sequence to form the physiological system) by simple models of stabilizing selection.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depts. of Zoology and Radiology and the Sports Medicine Division, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4

    Peter W. Hochachka

  2. Dept. of Physiological Sciences, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, 100, Peru

    C. Carlos Monge

Authors
  1. Peter W. Hochachka
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  2. C. Carlos Monge
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Sukhamay Lahiri  & Robert E. Forster II  & 

  2. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

    Naduri R. Prabhakar

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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Hochachka, P.W., Carlos Monge, C. (2002). Evolution of Human Hypoxia Tolerance Physiology. In: Lahiri, S., Prabhakar, N.R., Forster, R.E. (eds) Oxygen Sensing. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 475. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46825-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46825-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-46367-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-46825-4

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