scholarly journals Gene-environment interaction in evolutionary perspective: differential susceptibility to environmental influences

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Belsky ◽  
Sarah Hartman
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Differential Susceptibility ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment

scholarly journals Three phases of Gene × Environment interaction research: Theoretical assumptions underlying gene selection

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xiaoya Zhang ◽  
Jay Belsky
Keyword(s):  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Gene Selection ◽  
Differential Susceptibility ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Three Phases

Abstract Some Gene × Environment interaction (G×E) research has focused upon single candidate genes, whereas other related work has targeted multiple genes (e.g., polygenic scores). Each approach has informed efforts to identify individuals who are either especially vulnerable to the negative effects of contextual adversity (diathesis stress) or especially susceptible to both positive and negative contextual conditions (differential susceptibility). A critical step in all such molecular G×E research is the selection of genetic variants thought to moderate environmental influences, a subject that has not received a great deal of attention in critiques of G×E research (beyond the observation of small effects of individual genes). Here we conceptually distinguish three phases of G×E work based on the selection of genes presumed to moderate environmental effects and the theoretical basis of such decisions: (a) single candidate genes, (b) composited (multiple) candidate genes, and (c) GWAS-derived polygenic scores. This illustrative, not exhaustive, review makes it clear that implicit or explicit theoretical assumptions inform gene selection in ways that have not been clearly articulated or fully appreciated.

scholarly journals Differential susceptibility to effects of maternal sensitivity? A study of candidate plasticity genes

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 725-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Belsky ◽  
Daniel A. Newman ◽  
Keith F. Widaman ◽  
Phil Rodkin ◽  
Michael Pluess ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Maternal Sensitivity ◽  
Differential Susceptibility ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Current Sample ◽  
Stress Models ◽  
Main Effects

AbstractHere we tested whether there was genetic moderation of effects of early maternal sensitivity on social–emotional and cognitive–linguistic development from early childhood onward and whether any detected Gene × Environment interaction effects proved consistent with differential-susceptibility or diathesis–stress models of Person × Environment interaction (N= 695). Two new approaches for evaluating models were employed with 12 candidate genes. Whereas maternal sensitivity proved to be a consistent predictor of child functioning across the primary-school years, candidate genes did not show many main effects, nor did they tend to interact with maternal sensitivity/insensitivity. These findings suggest that the developmental benefits of early sensitive mothering and the costs of insensitive mothering look more similar than different across genetically different children in the current sample. Although acknowledgement of this result is important, it is equally important that the generally null Gene × Environment results reported here not be overgeneralized to other samples, other predictors, other outcomes, and other candidate genes.

Evolution, Ideology, and Human Nature

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-43
Author(s):  
Riane Eisler
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Caring Behaviors ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
And Behavior

If, as some evolutionary psychologists claim, we are inexorably driven by evolutionary imperatives of ruthless selfishness, it follows that we cannot solve problems such as violence and oppression. If genes trap us in nasty and cruel behaviors, there is no point in trying to build societies that are more humane. This chapter explores a very different evolutionary perspective that recognizes the human capacities for change and choice and emphasizes biocultural interactions over determinism. This emerging perspective on human origins and behavior hypothesizes, on the basis of much data, that the default tendencies in our species are toward prosocial helping and caring behaviors and concludes that, although we cannot create a world that is totally free of violence and cruelty, we can construct cultures with low levels of violence and oppression where our capacities for creativity, caring, and consciousness are allowed to develop and flourish. It points to a plethora of evidence—from ethnography, history, and psychology to genetics, neuroscience, and ethology—that provides a shock-and-awe set of counter-arguments to the assumption that selfishness and violence govern human nature (including what Darwin had to say about this) and uses the Biocultural Partnership-Domination Lens to show how gene-environment interaction differs in cultures orienting to either end of the partnership-domination social continuum. This chapter melds what we are learning about brain development and functioning with multiple avenues of scholarship to reveal otherwise invisible patterns that can help us move forward.

scholarly journals Parent–child conflict as an etiological moderator of childhood conduct problems: an example of a ‘bioecological’ gene–environment interaction

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1065-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Burt ◽  
K. L. Klump
Keyword(s):  
Conduct Problems ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Genetic Influences ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Child Conduct Problems ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Child Conduct ◽  
Parent Child

BackgroundPrior research has suggested that, consistent with the diathesis–stress model of gene–environment interaction (G × E), parent–child conflict activates genetic influences on antisocial/externalizing behaviors during adolescence. It remains unclear, however, whether this model is also important during childhood, or whether the moderation of child conduct problems by negative/conflictive parenting is better characterized as a bioecological interaction, in which environmental influences are enhanced in the presence of environmental risk whereas genetic influences are expressed most strongly in their absence. The current study sought to distinguish between these possibilities, evaluating how the parent–child relationship moderates the etiology of childhood-onset conduct problems.MethodWe conducted a series of ‘latent G by measured E’ interaction analyses, in which a measured environmental variable was allowed to moderate both genetic and environmental influences on child conduct problems. Participants included 500 child twin pairs from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR).ResultsShared environmental influences on conduct problems were found to be several-fold larger in those with high levels of parent–child conflict as compared with those with low levels. Genetic influences, by contrast, were proportionally more influential at lower levels of conflict than at higher levels.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that, although the diathesis–stress form of G × E appears to underlie the relationship between parenting and conduct problems during adolescence, this pattern of moderation does not extend to childhood. Instead, results were more consistent with the bioecological form of G × E which postulates that, in some cases, genetic influences may be most fully manifested in the absence of environmental risk.

Gene-Environment Interaction in the Determination of Levels of Haemostatic Variables Involved in Thrombosis and Fibrinolysis

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (01) ◽  
pp. 457-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
S E Humphries ◽  
A Panahloo ◽  
H E Montgomery ◽  
F Green ◽  
J Yudkin
Keyword(s):  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment
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