Genetic Disorders in History and Prehistory

Henrik Nielsen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Published online: September 2006

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005880

The historical aspects of genetic disorders are deduced from analysis of modern cases. Direct studies of DNA from ancient human remains could become integrated with this approach if a number of difficult technical problems can be solved.

Keywords: genetic disorder; ancient DNA; human migration; disease concept; historical perspective

 References
    Filon D, Faerman M, Smith P and Oppenheim A (1995) Sequence analysis reveals a -thalassemia mutation in the DNA of skeletal remains from the archaeological site of Akhziv, Israel. Nature Genetics 9: 365–368.
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 Further Reading
    Goldstein DB and Chikhi L (2002) Human migrations and population structure: what we know and why it matters. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 3: 129–152.
    O'Rourke DH, Hayes MG and Carlyle SW (2000) Ancient DNA studies in physical anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 217–242.
    Templeton AR (2002) Out of Africa again and again. Nature 416: 45–51.
 Web Links
    ePath Hemochromatosis (HFE); LocusID: 3077. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=3077
    ePath Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, ATP-binding cassette (CFTR); LocusID: 1080. LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=1080
    ePath Hemochromatosis (HFE); MIM number: 235200. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?235200
    ePath Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, ATP-binding cassette (CFTR); MIM number: 602421. OMIM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?602421

Related Sub-Topics:

Techniques and Tools in Clinical Genetics | General Genetics and Disease | History
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Article Title: Genetic Disorders in History and Prehistory
 
How to Cite close
Nielsen, Henrik(Sep 2006) Genetic Disorders in History and Prehistory. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005880]