The hip fracture incidence curve is shifting to the right: A forecast of the age-quake

Background The number of hip fractures has doubled in the last 30–40 years in many countries. Age-adjusted incidence has been reported to be decreasing in Europe and North America, but is there a decreasing trend in all age groups

Impact of Carnivory on Human Development and Evolution Revealed by a New Unifying Model of Weaning in Mammals

Our large brain, long life span and high fertility are key elements of human evolutionary success and are often thought to have evolved in interplay with tool use, carnivory and hunting. However, the specific impact of carnivory on human evolution, life history and development remains controversial. Here we show in quantitative terms that dietary profile is a key factor influencing time to weaning across a wide taxonomic range of mammals, including humans. In a model encompassing a total of 67 species and genera from 12 mammalian orders, adult brain mass and two dichotomous variables reflecting species differences regarding limb biomechanics and dietary profile, accounted for 75.5%, 10.3% and 3.4% of variance in time to weaning, respectively, together capturing 89.2% of total variance. Crucially, carnivory predicted the time point of early weaning in humans with remarkable precision, yielding a prediction error of less than 5% with a sample of forty-six human natural fertility societies as reference. Hence, carnivory appears to provide both a necessary and sufficient explanation as to why humans wean so much earlier than the great apes. While early weaning is regarded as essentially differentiating the genus Homo from the great apes, its timing seems to be determined by the same limited set of factors in humans as in mammals in general, despite some 90 million years of evolution. Our analysis emphasizes the high degree of similarity of relative time scales in mammalian development and life history across 67 genera from 12 mammalian orders and shows that the impact of carnivory on time to weaning in humans is quantifiable, and critical. Since early weaning yields shorter interbirth intervals and higher rates of reproduction, with profound effects on population dynamics, our findings highlight the emergence of carnivory as a process fundamentally determining human evolution

Evolution of the mammalian lysozyme gene family

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lysozyme <it>c </it>(chicken-type lysozyme) has an important role in host defense, and has been extensively studied as a model in molecular biology, enzymology, protein chemistry, and crystallography. Traditionally, lysozyme <it>c </it>has been considered to be part of a small family that includes genes for two other proteins, lactalbumin, which is found only in mammals, and calcium-binding lysozyme, which is found in only a few species of birds and mammals. More recently, additional testes-expressed members of this family have been identified in human and mouse, suggesting that the mammalian lysozyme gene family is larger than previously known.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we characterize the extent and diversity of the lysozyme gene family in the genomes of phylogenetically diverse mammals, and show that this family contains at least eight different genes that likely duplicated prior to the diversification of extant mammals. These duplicated genes have largely been maintained, both in intron-exon structure and in genomic context, throughout mammalian evolution.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The mammalian lysozyme gene family is much larger than previously appreciated and consists of at least eight distinct genes scattered around the genome. Since the lysozyme <it>c </it>and lactalbumin proteins have acquired very different functions during evolution, it is likely that many of the other members of the lysozyme-like family will also have diverse and unexpected biological properties.</p

Is Evolution of Blind Mole Rats Determined by Climate Oscillations?

The concept of climate variability facilitating adaptive radiation supported by the ‘‘Court Jester’’ hypothesis is disputed by the ‘‘Red Queen’’ one, but the prevalence of one or the other might be scale-dependent. We report on a detailed, comprehensive phylo-geographic study on the ,4 kb mtDNA sequence in underground blind mole rats of the family Spalacidae (or subfamily Spalacinae) from the East Mediterranean steppes. Our study aimed at testing the presence of periodicities in branching patterns on a constructed phylogenetic tree and at searching for congruence between branching events, tectonic history and paleoclimates. In contrast to the strong support for the majority of the branching events on the tree, the absence of support in a few instances indicates that network-like evolution could exist in spalacids. In our tree, robust support was given, in concordance with paleontological data, for the separation of spalacids from muroid rodents during the first half of the Miocene when open, grass-dominated habitats were established. Marine barriers formed between Anatolia and the Balkans could have facilitated the separation of the lineage ‘‘Spalax’’ from the lineage ‘‘Nannospalax’’ and of the clade ‘‘leucodon’’ from the clade ‘‘xanthodon’’. The separation of the clade ‘‘ehrenbergi’’ occurred during the late stages of the tectonically induced uplift of the Anatolian high plateaus and mountains, whereas the separation of the clade ‘‘vasvarii’’ took place when the rapidly uplifting Taurus mountain range prevented the Mediterranean rainfalls from reaching the Central Anatolian Plateau. The separation of Spalax antiquus and S. graecus occurred when the southeastern Carpathians were uplifted. Despite the role played by tectonic events, branching events that show periodicity corresponding to 400-kyr and 100-kyr eccentricity bands illuminate the important role of orbital fluctuations on adaptive radiation in spalacids. At the given scale, our results supports the ‘‘Court Jester’’ hypothesis over the ‘‘Red Queen’’ one

Dietary animal and plant protein intakes and their associations with obesity and cardio-metabolic indicators in European adolescents: The HELENA cross-sectional study

Background: Previous studies suggest that dietary protein might play a beneficial role in combating obesity and its related chronic diseases. Total, animal and plant protein intakes and their associations with anthropometry and serum biomarkers in European adolescents using one standardised methodology across European countries are not well documented. Objectives: To evaluate total, animal and plant protein intakes in European adolescents stratified by gender and age, and to investigate their associations with cardio-metabolic indicators (anthropometry and biomarkers). Methods: The current analysis included 1804 randomly selected adolescents participating in the HELENA study (conducted in 2006-2007) aged 12.5-17.5 y (47% males) who completed two non-consecutive computerised 24-h dietary recalls. Associations between animal and plant protein intakes, and anthropometry and serum biomarkers were examined with General linear Model multivariate analysis. Results: Average total protein intake exceeded the recommendations of World Health Organization and European Food Safety Authority. Mean total protein intake was 96 g/d (59% derived from animal protein). Total, animal and plant protein intakes (g/d) were significantly lower in females than in males and total and plant protein intakes were lower in younger participants (12.5-14.9 y). Protein intake was significantly lower in underweight subjects and higher in obese ones; the direction of the relationship was reversed after adjustments for body weight (g/(kg.d)). The inverse association of plant protein intakes was stronger with BMI z-score and body fat percentage (BF%) compared to animal protein intakes. Additionally, BMI and BF% were positively associated with energy percentage of animal protein. Conclusions: This sample of European adolescents appeared to have adequate total protein intake. Our findings suggest that plant protein intakes may play a role in preventing obesity among European adolescents. Further longitudinal studies are needed to investigate the potential beneficial effects observed in this study in the prevention of obesity and related chronic diseases