Evo-Devo of Child Growth Treatise on Child Growth and Human Evolution

by Hochberg, Ze'Ev

• ISBN13: 9781118027165
• ISBN10: 1118027167
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Bringing together the evolutionary theory of life history and principles from evo-devo, this book analyzes child growth and development in a presentation accessible to evolutionary biologists and clinicians. It shows how transitions between unique life-history phases relate to adaptive responses such as body composition, stature, and differences between male and female development. The book also explores how these transitions can illuminate the sequence and mechanisms of child growth, and serve as diagnostic tools for growth disorders. Researchers and students will find a broad range of theoretical and practical concepts discussed.

Author Biography

Evo-Devo of Child Growth provides a new perspective for evolutionary biologists to understand the phases and transitions of child growth. Moreover, it offers a new approach to help clinicians to better understand and diagnose a broad range of child growth disorders.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introductio	p. 1
Evolutionary Thinking in Medicine	p. 1
Evo-Devo	p. 2
Life-History Theory	p. 4
Evolutionary Perspective in Child Growth and Maturation	p. 5
Child Growth and the Environment	p. 8
Heterochrony and Allometry	p. 9
Adaptive Plasticity in Life History	p. 10
Child Growth and the Theory of Life History	p. 11
Life-History Stages	p. 13
Transitions Between Life-History Stages	p. 17
Developmental Plasticity and Adaptation	p. 19
Cultural Adaptation To the Environment	p. 27
Adaptive Plasticity of Attachment Behaviors	p. 28
Note by George Chrousos on Stress in Early Life: A Developmental and Evolutionary Perspective	p. 29
Stress Concepts	p. 30
Stress Mechanisms	p. 31
Pathological Effects of Stress	p. 36
Note by Stefan Bornstein and Andreas Androutsellis-Theotokis on Endogenous Stem Cells as Components of Plasticity and Adaptation	p. 40
The Adult Mammalian Brain: Plastic or Rigid?	p. 43
Hidden Plasticity Potential in the Brain	p. 43
Neurogenic Cell vs. Neural Stem Cell	p. 45
Does the Role of Neural Stem Cells Change from the Developing Age to the Adult?	p. 46
The Disconnect Between Neurogenesis and the Presence of Neural Stem Cells	p. 48
Fetal vs. Adult Neural Stem Cells	p. 48
Signal Transduction of Stem Cell Regulation	p. 49
Beyond the Nervous System	p. 50
Conclusions	p. 51
Fetal Growth	p. 53
Endocrine and Metabolic Control of Fetal Growth	p. 53
The Role of the Placenta	p. 54
Developmental Origins of Health and Adult Disease (DOHaD)	p. 55
Imprinted Genes and Intrauterine Growth	p. 57
Note by Alan Templeton on the Evolutionary Connection Between Senescence and Childhood Growth and Development	p. 58
An Evolutionary Theory of Aging	p. 58
Thrifty Genotypes and Antagonistic Pleiotropy	p. 61
Thrifty Genotypes and Heart Disease	p. 64
Why We Grow Old: The Answer	p. 65
Infancy	p. 67
The Reproductive Dilemma	p. 68
The Obstetrical Dilemma	p. 68
Growth of the Infant	p. 74
Endocrine Aspects of Infantile Growth	p. 76
Infancy-Childhood Transition: Determination of Adult Stature	p. 77
Weaning from Breast-Feeding	p. 86
Childhood	p. 91
The Weanling's Dilemma	p. 91
The Grandmother Theory	p. 93
Growth of the Child	p. 94
Endocrine Aspects of Childhood Growth	p. 95
Juvenility	p. 96
The Social/Cognitive Definition of Juvenility	p. 97
Paleoanthropological Juvenility and Teeth Eruption	p. 98
Adrenarche	p. 98
Juvenile Body Composition	p. 101
Growth of the Juvenile	p. 105
Trade-Offs for the Timing of Transition to Juvenility	p. 107
Precocious Juvenility	p. 109
The Pygmy Paradigm for Precocious Juvenility	p. 111
Evolutionary Perspective in Precocious Juvenility	p. 113
Adolescence	p. 115
Human Evolution of Adolescence	p. 117
Transition from Juvenility to Adolescence	p. 119
Pubertal Growth	p. 124
Youth	p. 127
Evolutionary Strategies for Body Size	p. 131
The Little People of Flores	p. 135
Lessons from the Great Apes	p. 136
The Handicap Theory	p. 136
Sexual Dimorphism	p. 137
The Role of Sex Steroids	p. 141
Energy Considerations	p. 143
Endocrine Control of Energy Expenditure	p. 146
Weaning and Growth in a Malnourished Environment	p. 147
Stage Transitions: Trade-Offs and Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity	p. 149
Transgenerational Influences in Life-Stage Transition	p. 152
Epigenetics and Life-History Stage Transitions	p. 153
Note by Ken Ong on Population Genetics and Child Growth and Maturation	p. 158
Genetic Adaptation	p. 158
The Genetic Epidemiology of Child Growth and Maturation	p. 159
Basic Principles and Heritability Estimates from Twin Studies	p. 159
More Complex Heritability Models	p. 160
Heritability Is Dependent Upon the Setting	p. 160
Essential Genes for Childhood Growth and Maturation	p. 161
Common Genetic Variants for Childhood Growth and Maturation	p. 161
GWAS Findings Lead to New Biology	p. 162
GWAS Findings Lead to New Phenotypic Understanding	p. 163
Genetic Adaptations for Childhood Growth and Maturation	p. 164
Conclusions	p. 165
Note by Moshe Szyf on the DNA Methylation Pattern as a Molecular Link Between Early Childhood and Adult Health	p. 165
Introduction	p. 166
DNA Methylation Patterns and Their Roles in Cellular Differentiation and Gene Expression	p. 167
DNA Methylation as a Genome Adaptation Mechanism	p. 173
Epigenetic Programming by the Early Life Social Environment	p. 174
Genome and System-Wide Impact of Early Life Adversity	p. 176
Prospective and Summary	p. 177
Life History Theory in Understanding Growth Disorders	p. 179
Down Syndrome	p. 180
Noonan's Syndrome	p. 183
Silver-Russell Syndrome	p. 183
Additional Cases	p. 184
When the Packages Disintegrate	p. 187
Concluding Remarks	p. 190
References	p. 194
Index	p. 224
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