Human evolution; traits from many points in DNA (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, May 18, 2019, 11:36 (1798 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: “'The methods developed so far really think about genetics and environment as separate and orthogonal, as independent factors. When in truth, they’re not independent. The environment has had a strong impact on the genetics, and it probably interacts with the genetics,” said Gil McVean, a statistical geneticist at the University of Oxford. “We don’t
really do a good job of … understanding [that] interaction.'”

DAVID: We really do not know how genes control traits. Environment plays an unknown degree of influence, as dhw notes.

Thank you for this gracious acknowledgement. All our discussions revolve around things “we really do not know”, but I don’t think it requires a great deal of thought, research and money to realize that interaction between the genome and the environment lies at the heart of evolution.