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My name is Noah Evers and I’ll be presenting How Did COVID-19 Shift Human Psychology and Behavior��How does a life-threatening pandemic affect a culture? The Theory of Social Change, Cultural Evolution, and Human Development predicts that danger, as indicated by rising death rates and narrowing social worlds, shifts human psychology and behavior toward that found in the small-scale, rural subsistence ecologies in which humans evolved. COVID provided a perfect natural experiment to test this theory as it dramatically increased death rates and narrowed social worlds through stay-at-home orders. Culture in subsistence ecologies is defined by its high mortality salience, collectivism, and engagement in subsistence activities. Therefore, we predicted that as COVID shifted death rates and social worlds closer to those of subsistence ecologies, cultural expression of these hallmark characteristics would increase in tandem.

In this four-country study, we compared the national frequency of conceptually relevant terms used in Google searches and Twitter posts for 30 days before the coronavirus pandemic began in each country with the first 30 days after it began. Our slide presents only the Twitter results, but Google searches almost perfectly replicated those of Twitter.

As you can see in the bottom two rows of the slide, in each country, words indexing collectivism and subsistence activities rose significantly during COVID.

Mortality salience is humans' evolved psychological measure of real-world mortality. As you can see in the first row of the slide, mortality salience terms rose significantly in the U.S. and Indonesia but not in Mexico or Japan.

Mortality salience likely did not increase in Mexico or Japan because both countries had high pre-existing cultural mortality salience. Additionally, for Japan, a second factor kept mortality salience constant: although under stay at home orders, Japanese death rates did not increase during our study period.

These findings support a growing body of research documenting a predictable human response to ecological danger.

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Social Movements as Evolved Responses to Mortality Threats Caused by Disease

Gabriel W. Evers

My research examines social movements as evolved responses to mortality threat caused by disease. Do humans have an evolved response to environmental danger? Adaptations to danger that enhance the chances for group survival constitute basic evolutionary mechanisms. The theory of social change, cultural evolution, and human development proposes that massive mortality events created by disease stimulate shifts toward a psychology adapted for the more dangerous environments in which humans evolved. Namely, practical intelligence and collectivism increase. This primes people to band together in order to solve a community problem through tangible, real-world actions - the broad-strokes definition of a social movement. In this study, I show that the three largest medical mortality events in U.S. history - the COVID-19 Pandemic, the HIV/AIDS Epidemic, and the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic - resulted in correspondingly large-scale social movements. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, three social movements of unprecedented size and intensity occurred: The Black Lives Matter Movement, which was the largest social movement in US history, The January 6th Insurrection, and the highest voter turnout in American history for the 2020 Presidential Election. During the HIV/AIDS Epidemic, two massive social movements also occurred: The Gay Liberation Movement and the Anti-Nuclear Movement. Finally, during the 1918 Spanish Flu, two dissimilar yet defining social movements took place: The peak of the Women’s Suffrage Movement resulting in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, which was one of the largest racial conflicts in US History. The findings suggest a consistent pattern: each major medical mortality event gave rise to substantial social movements. These results suggest that collective action in the form of social movements is an evolved mechanism by which groups adapt to massive mortality threats posed by disease.

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In the Light of Evolution: Evaluating the Effects of Evolutionary Adaptations in Two-Component Response Systems (Escherichia coli K12 MG1655)

Brittany Sanders, Joseph L. Graves Jr, and Misty Thomas, Department of Biology, North Carolina A &T State University, Greensboro, NC.

Heavy Metals

Antibiotics

Environmental

Stimuli

Nutrients

Stress Response Mechanisms

Acclimation

Adaptation

changes in genetic expression

simple mutations

1. Research Goal: To better understand how naturally acquired adaptive mutations occur in two-component response systems.

2. Research Aim: To identify changes in global cellular physiology affected by nonsynonymous mutations in CusS.

RNA Seq analysis will be used to evaluate differential gene expression (Trait vs Environment), global cross-talk between TCRS, and novel pathways.

CusS - CusR TCRS

Randell et al., 2015

ISEMPH 2023

Temperature

RNA SEQ Data (Key Findings)

Flagella/Chemotaxis
Redox (Oxidation)
Purine Metabolism
Metals
TCRS Crosstalk

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A putatively adaptive missense variant in ICAM1 is associated with systolic blood pressure in Andean highlanders

Grossman et al. 2010

Akbari et al. 2018

Rentzsch et al. 2018

Adzhubei et al. 2013

Law et al. 2005

Conn et al. 2016

Cerro de Pasco, Peru (4,340m)

40 whole-genome sequences (20 female)

Positive selection scan (Composite of Multiple Signals Test)

ICAM1 gene

Identification of a favored mutation within a positive selection locus (iSAFE)

ICAM1 SNP

Rs1799969

(G ➡ A missense mutation)

255 targeted SNP genotypes in Andean highlanders

Association with systolic blood pressure

James J. Yu, PhD Candidate, Simonson Lab, UC San Diego ISEMPH 2023

Lower systolic blood pressure:

Effect size of 0 vs 1 copy of A

Females: 13.5 mm Hg

Males: 7.1 mm Hg

Medication = ~3-10 mm Hg

67.5% have A allele in Andean highlanders

25.1 CADD score (top 0.1-1%)

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Annie V. Rorick & Molly M. Rorick

Ex: Directed evolution for protein engineering

Ex: Evolutionary genetics

Connecting children to research: Evolutionary biology lessons drawing from research are appropriate for any age group.

LlAdhA asymmetric unit dimer (Liu et al, 2012):

Puzzle of directed evolution to increase affinity for non-native substrates:

For more info: evolive.org & mollyrorick.com

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A NOVEL SYSTEMS BIOLOGY & BIOINFORMATICS APPROACH FOR IDENTIFYING EVOLUTIONARY TRADE-OFFS

(ATHEROGENESIS & ATHEROSCLEROSIS)

AUTHORS

Kaitlyn Smolens,

B. Natterson-Horowitz, M.D.

Our example pathophysiology

Atherosclerosis - the leading cause of death in our species

Evolutionary Trade-offs

Balancing vulnerability to pathophysiology (disease) against the multiple underlying biological benefits contained within the phenotype of vulnerability.

Methodology Objective

Identify overlap between physiological pathways and pathophysiological pathways
Effectively visualize the extent of overlap between these pathways.

Implications

Our methodology can

highlight the non-proximate (evolutionary) processes that shape vulnerability to disease to clarify our understanding of evolutionary trade-offs.
apply to various human diseases to strengthen knowledge of underlying biological functions and promise more informed development of strategies for treatment and prevention.

Summary of Atherosclerosis Methodology:

Using Gene Analytics, we identified the top 3 physiological (beneficial) pathways that maximally overlap with the pathophysiological (atherogenic) pathway – Immune Caspase-1 Activation Pathway, NOD-like Receptor Pathway and Toll-like Receptor Signaling Pathway.
To produce a visually appealing and intuitive presentation of the evolutionary story underlying atherosclerosis vulnerability, we superimposed the overlapping physiological and pathophysiological pathways

TOLL-LIKE RECEPTOR SIGNALING PATHWAY

SUPERIMPOSED ONTO THE

ATHEROSCLEROSIS PATHWAY

LEGEND

Yellow Box: Pathophysiology

Blue Box: Physiology

Turquoise Circles: Overlapping Genes

Turquoise Arrows: Convergent Pathways

TOLL-LIKE RECEPTOR SIGNALING PATHWAY

(UCLA) University of California, Los Angeles

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Siblings in Hormonal Synchrony

Anna Samsonov,¹ Heather Habecker,² Robert S Walker,³ Mark V Flinn ¹

¹Dept. of Anthropology, Baylor University; ²Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University; ³Dept. of Anthropology, University of Missouri

salivary cortisol

samples

from 1989-1998

(traditional culture,

no major hurricanes)

- naturalistic environment

- 424 participants

- 14,238 samples

- 110,728 dyads w/in

15 minutes of collection

synchrony (similarity of cortisol measures over multiple samples during the day)

Cortisol responses to everyday challenges are more in synchrony for siblings than non-siblings.
Cortisol differences are greater if:
Greater difference in collection time
Greater age difference
Dyad are not siblings

→ IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY ENVIRONMENT & KINSHIP IN UNDERSTANDING STRESS RESPONSES & EVOLUTION OF HPA AXIS

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�Evaluation patterns of evolutionary mismatch across human disease��Laurel Moyse¹, Laura Perez², George Perry^1,2,3�¹Department of Biology, ²Department of Anthropology, ³Huck Institutes of the Life Science, Penn State University�

Download all associations from human GWAS catalog

Match disease risk-increasing alleles to two evolutionary selection statistics

SDS (singleton density score) :

past ~3000 years

iHS (integrated haplotype score) : past ~25000 years

Select disease risk-increasing alleles for three population groups

Sort traits into 19 broad disease categories and individual diseases

Identify cases where diseases risk-increasing alleles show signals of possible positive selection – indicates potential evolutionary mismatch

ISEMPH 2023

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Antibiotic Stewardship, Vaccines, Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance

�Michelle Blyth MD, Julio Figueroa MD�Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA

11010062

Decreasing rates of invasive pneumococcal disease (not shown), and penicillin resistance trended down over the 9 year study period (approximately a 20% decrease in average MIC). This was not seen in levofloxacin resistance.

Fluoroquinolone use (such as ciprofloxacin), decreased by approximately 66% over this period, while beta-lactam use (such as penicillin) remained stable.

Differences between penicillin resistance in blood cultures and other sites were noted, but not seen with levofloxacin resistance.

The difference in penicillin resistance hints at a relationship between resistance and virulence.

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tnp TnAs1

tet(A)

tnp TnAs1

tnp IS26

tnp Tn2

tnp ISEcp1

blaCTX-M-15

tnp Tn2

tnp IS26

aph(3’)-Ia

tnp IS26

mph(A)

tnp IS6100

sul1

aadA2

dfrA12

intl1

tnp IS26

tnp IS5075

sul2

aph(6)-Id

tnp ISKpn19

qnrS1

tnp IS26

aph(3”)-I

Klebsiella pneumoniae Carries a Novel Multidrug Resistance Region that Evolved from the Mobilization of Transposons

Dana Mejia, Dr. Andrey Tatarenkov, Dr. Marlene de la Cruz, Dr. Luis Mota-Bravo,

School of Biological Sciences, University of California–Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697

Minority Science Programs

School of Biological Sciences

University of California–Irvine

1136 Biological Sciences III�Irvine, CA 92697-2527

mejiadl@uci.edu

�

The Structure and Formation of Composite Transposons and Multidrug Resistance Regions

INTRODUCTION

MATERIALS AND METHODS

HYPOTHESIS & OBJECTIVES

RESULTS

Hypothesis

Environmental Klebsiella harbor antibiotic resistance genes associated with composite transposons that have been dispersed to other plasmids.

Objectives

Determine antibiotic resistance profile and antibiotic resistance genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae SW7932 isolate.
Characterize plasmids and composite transposons associated with antibiotic resistance genes from SW7932 isolate.
Compare plasmids and composite transposons from SW7932 isolate with other plasmids from NCBI genbank.

Commensal and Clinical Relevance of Klebsiella pneumoniae

Sample taken from Central Park, New York

MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry used to identify Klebsiella pneumoniae

Disk Diffusion Tests using CLSI standards

Illumina and Oxford Nanopore for DNA sequencing, Unicycler and Geneious for plasmid assembly

Qiagen Midiprep used for Plasmid extraction

Gel Electrophoresis conducted to identify plasmid

PATRIC and Geneious Prime software used for plasmid annotation

NCBI Blast, ISFinder, and Center for Epidemiology (CGE) for plasmid analysis

RESULTS

SW7932_p209 Novel Multidrug Resistance Region

IncFIB(K)

Klebsiella pneumoniae

Antibiotic Resistance

Open Reading Frames Annotation Colors:

Hypothetical

Mobile Genetic Element

*5 were unidentified

*82 were unidentified

Count

Dissemination of Clinically Relevant Beta-lactam Resistance Gene Through Horizontal Gene Transfer of IS26 Composite Transposon

Countries

Bacterial Species

Incompatibility Types

Sources

CONCLUSIONS

Overall:

Our research provides insight in developing strategies to prevent further expansion of antibiotic resistance between pathogenic bacteria and reduce its serious toll on human health.

Future Work

Conduct similar analysis on other IS26 composite transposon subregions from our multidrug resistance region and try to establish evolutionary sequence of events that created it.

[1] Ashurst JV, Dawson A. 2021. Klebsiella Pneumonia. In: StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing, Treasure Island (FL);.

[1]

1. Insertion sequences (IS) consist of inverted repeated and a transposase gene. Direct repeats signal recent insertion.

2. Composite transposons consist of two IS, between them are antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs).

3. IS and composite transposons can move to different molecules.

4. The movement of composite transposons can create multidrug resistant regions

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Zoey Marsh, B. Natterson Horowitz MD

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Implications of anticipated warming temperatures on three West Nile virus mosquito vectors in North America

Johnny Uelmen

Assistant Director of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine, Duke University

Calculate temperature suitability ranges by applying species-specific thermal optima to anticipated climate warming under the “worst case” emissions scenario (SSP585):

2020

2050

2080

Main Implications From Study:

Ranges will significantly expand northward
Mosquitoes will become active earlier and for longer durations in expanded territories

1st 30 seconds:

My name is Johnny Uelmen. I am the Assistant Director of TriCEM at Duke.

Climate change is all around us. Increasing temperatures are among the most tangible that we feel & see. Each year, we experience unprecedented heat.

2nd 30 seconds:

As an entomologist by training, I am curious about the implications this has on mosquitoes. Like all arthropods, mosquito development rates are affected by temperature. As temperatures rise, development rate increases, until it hits it's "peak" -- called the "thermal optima". More specifically, I want to know how rising temperatures, brought forth by climate change, affect mosquitoes that vector West Nile virus, the most important mosquito-borne disease in North America

3rd 30 seconds:

Colleague and co-author Marta Shockett and company recently establish the "thermal optima" for several mosquito vectors in North America. We combined their work with a fantastic dataset called ClimateNA, allowing us to estimate mosquito distribution models based on various futuristic climate scenarios.

4th 30 seconds:

This example compares the estimated thermal suitability at each of three time points: current, 2050, and 2080. Notice how the distribution shifts northward.

To make more sense of this, this figure shows where the difference in area, over time, is either gained or lost. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of territory change results in a massive gain for all species. This dynamic may have major consequences for the future of mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes will emerge earlier in season and for longer durations, increasing public health disease risk. We also need to evaluate the ecological and evolutionary tradeoffs, particularly among pathogens, under these changing conditions.

Thank you!

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