Response to Founder Mutation

Response to Founder Mutations

According to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, all organisms can be traced to a common ancestor and nature selects the stronger ones to survive. However, nowadays millions of people are still struggling with diseases that are caused by gene mutations. If natural selection has taken place, why are there people with diseases still live and have offspring? The article “Founder Mutations” brings up several interesting points about this topic. First, the recessive genes are beneficial to the carriers in some cases. For example, sickle cell mutation arose repeated in regions in Africa and Middle East inflicted with malaria. A copy of sickle cell gene can help carriers survive malaria. Another example is that the patients of hemochromatosis have benefits as well. They can be protected from iron-deficiency anemia because the protein encoded in the gene helps the patients absorb iron more effectively. However, what is the origin of these gene mutations? In fact, the gene mutations come from a mutation founder. This founder passes this gene on to his offspring. Archaeological and geneticist’s evidence shows that certain diseases come from a specific area, confirming that human beings were able to migrate from places. In the video “The Journey of Man”, Spencer Wells visited the African tribe that was supposed to be oldest human tribe on the Earth. The tribesmen’s appearances are constituted with the characteristics from people all around the world. Wells also mentions the theory of migration started from Africa. Therefore, founder mutations can be found in numerous places around the world.