The Exposome in Human Evolution: From Dust to Diesel

[BrianR]

This open access review considers human changes over evolutionary time, primarily regarding inhaled pollutants, but also wanders around various other inflammatory factors. It is perhaps somewhat off topic, but does include a couple of pages worth of APOE discussion. The paper includes a lot of hypothesizing, but does offer a rich set of references. (I found it entertaining, of course your interests will likely vary.)

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/706768
The Exposome in Human Evolution: From Dust to Diesel
Benjamin C. Trumble, Caleb E. Finch.
The Quarterly Review of Biology, 2019; 94 (4): 333
DOI: 10.1086/706768

Here's the beginning of the Introduction:

AS human ancestors diverged from great apes, they encountered additional environmental hazards: increased savanna mineral dust and fecal aerosols; pathogens from decaying carrion; smoke from domestic fire; new pathogens from domesticated animals in the Neolithic; and, in the Industrial Age, airborne toxins from fossil fuels and tobacco. During these phases, humans also evolved larger brains and extended life histories with prolonged maturation and longer life spans, as discussed below. Genetic adaptations acquired during these six million years are analyzed in terms of the novel toxins from exogenous and endogenous sources. Table 1 and Figure 1 outline sequential phases of the expanding human exposome, in which new environmental hazards are cumulatively added to those from prior phases. These new exposures need not have occurred at the same time in all human populations, and should not be considered as hard boundaries for the phases.

An obligatory picture which includes APOE4

Figure 8. Shifts of Mortality From Pathogen-Driven Inflammation to Sterile Inflammogens During Industrialization.png

And this cheery thought from the summation: "ApoE4 might regain adaptive value with recurrence of global infections." (Yay team?)

[circular]

+1!