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Tiny tots “designed” for tiny diets

July 18, 2005

sirpatrick.jpgThe defensive armour of fleas may provide a clue as to why some people are more prone to heart disease, an international scientist will tell guests at The University of New England on Wednesday (July 20).
Professor Sir Patrick Bateson is Professor of Ethology at Cambridge University. He will give a talk at UNE on studies showing a decisive link between babies’ low birth rate and heart disease.
“Studies proposing a link between low birth weight and heart disease have been confirmed repeatedly when the people concerned have been living in newly affluent environments,” Sir Patrick said.
One interpretation of this observation is, those born with a low birth weight may be better suited to low levels of nutrition. Indeed, they may be disadvantaged in a high-nutrition society and so, because they are not born to eat as much or varied nutrients, have a higher incidence of developing heart disease.
“If an individual is induced early in life to develop in a particular way, what can be done to reverse this developmental trajectory for a [human] adapted to an environment that no longer exists?”
Sir Patrick said living things “inherited” features that helped their parents or grandparents to survive.
He used as an example the defensive armour water fleas developed after their mothers were exposed to predators, or the migratory habits of desert locusts when previous generations were exposed to high population densities.
“Not all cases should be treated in the same way, but those that are relevant to human health suggest a ‘phenotype’ adapted to one environment might be maladapted to another environment inhabited by species from time to time,” Sir Patrick said.
“The public health implications are obvious if the hypothesis is correct.”
Sir Patrick will be the guest of UNE’s Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour.
Professor of Ethology at Cambridge, Sir Patrick’s main research is in the development of behaviour.
He has been a Director of the sub-department of Animal Behaviour and Head of the Department of Zoology at Cambridge.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1983 and was knighted for his services to science in 2003.
His talk begins at 1pm in the McClymont Lecture theatre. The public is welcome to attend.
For more information phone Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779

Posted by Lydia Roberts at July 18, 2005 03:50 PM