Synergistic pleiotropy directed the evolution of the sweaty and naked ape

3 March 2023

Yana Kamberov
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania

zoom recording

Abstract

Humans are unique among mammals in using sweating as the primary mechanism to dump body heat. Humans' ability to effectively harness sweating as a thermoregulatory mechanism is a product of the evolution of a dramatically increased sweat gland density and a drastic reduction in the size of body hair in our species relative to other primates. Accordingly, humans have the distinction of being the "the naked, sweaty ape". I will present the advances our lab has made in identifying the genetic drivers of these unique and essential human adaptations, and discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the forces that shaped their evolution on the human lineage.

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