Gene–culture coevolution

Gene–culture coevolution is reciprocal evolutionary change in which culturally transmitted practices alter genetic selection, while genetic differences can shape cultural practices.

Gene–culture feedback: A reciprocal process in which genetic and cultural changes alter each other’s transmission or fitness effects. It captures the two-way causal loop at the heart of gene–culture coevolution.
Lactase persistence in Europe: The rise of adult lactose digestion in some European populations following the spread of dairying. It is a well-studied case linking pastoral culture with selection on lactase-regulation variants.
Cultural evolution: Change in socially transmitted information and behavior across generations. Gene–culture coevolution is a framework for studying culture’s interaction with genetic evolution.
Gene–environment interaction: A change in the effect of a genetic variant across different environments. It involves genes and environments, but does not require cultural inheritance or reciprocal change.
Cultural niche construction: The process by which learned practices modify environments and thereby affect organisms’ selection pressures. Cultural changes can reshape the environments in which genetic variants are selected.
Lactase persistence in East Africa: Adult lactose digestion in East African populations, associated with genetic variants distinct from common European variants. Independent variants show that pastoralism favored the same trait through separate evolutionary paths.
Dual inheritance theory: An evolutionary framework treating genes and culture as distinct systems of inheritance that can interact. It formalized the study of genetic and cultural transmission as coupled evolutionary processes.
Genetic assimilation: An evolutionary process in which a trait initially induced by the environment becomes genetically stabilized. It describes one possible evolutionary outcome, not necessarily continuing gene–culture feedback.
Cultural transmission: The spread of information, behaviors, or skills through social learning rather than genetic inheritance. It supplies the non-genetic inheritance channel in the coevolutionary process.
Amylase gene copy number: Variation in the number of AMY1 gene copies, which encode an enzyme involved in starch digestion. Dietary reliance on starch has been associated with differences in copy number across populations.

Linked from 21 pages