On Natural Selection

[reverdybrune]

My science teacher brought up today that the allele for sickle cell anemia is more common in Africa. At first glance, this would not seem to make sense according to natural selection since sickle-cell is often deadly. However...

What is special about the heterozygous form of the gene for Beta-hemoglobin that could explain why the allele for beta-

Comments

[reverdybrune]

realitycheck44 (on OO.net) commented:

It has to do with the fact that the heterozygous form of Beta-homoglobin combats malaria. Because Africa is has more outbreaks of Malaria than most other parts of the world, it appears there most often. However, the homozygous form is deadly.

Zak

[edit to fix spelling of malaria.]

[reverdybrune]

You are correct! 10,000 points!!