A question for all you learned BIO folks out there from a novice:
I have had a little discussion with a co-worker of mine about
sickle cell anemia in Africans and those of African heritage.
I seem to remember it used as an example of natural selection
in my biology classes. My understanding is that the majority
of Africans have enough sickle cells to discourage malaria,
but not enough to cause the horrible symptoms associated with
so-called sickle cell anemia. On the other end of the spectrum,
there are those who have no sickle cells, who run the risk of
contracting malaria, and who are therefore weeded out of the
population by that disease.
I remember hearing when I lived in Costa Rica that Africans
immigrated to the Carribbean seaboard to build the railroad
there because they had an immunity to malaria, which had killed
previous work-crews of Spanish and Chinese descent. Am I
misinformed?
My co-worker maintains that most blacks do not have sickle
cells and enjoy no resistance to the disease. What say you?
---- Mark
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========================= Mark Baldwin ag944 at lafn.org
