ancestral

The genetic testing of race

In one form or another, you may have been (unfortunately) exposed to the notion of ‘testing for someone’s race using genetics.’ In one sense, this is part of the motivation and platform of ‘23andMe’, which maps the genetic variants across the human genome back to likely origin populations to determine the relative ancestry of a person. In a much darker sense, the connection between genetic identity and race is the basis of eugenics, by suggesting genetic “purity” (this concept is utter nonsense, for reference) of a population as justification for some racist hierarchy. Typically, this is associated with Hitler’s Nazism, but more subversive versions of this association still exist in the world: for Australian readers, most notably when the far-right conservative minor party One Nation suggested that people claiming to be Indigenous should be subjected to genetic testing to verify their race.

DNA Ancestry map.jpg — A simplified overview of how DNA Ancestry methods work, by associating particular genetic variants within your genome to likely regions of origin. Note the geographic imprecision in the method on the map on the right, as well as the clear gaps. Source: Ancestry blog.

The biological concept of a ‘race’

Beyond the apparent ethical and moral objections to the invasive nature of demanding genetic testing for Indigenous peoples, a crucial question is one of feasibility: even if you decided to genetically test for race, is this possible? It might come as a surprise to non-geneticists that actually, from a genetic perspective, race is not a particularly stable concept.

The notion of races based on genetics has been a highly controversial topic throughout the development of genetic theory and research. Even recently, James Watson (as in of Watson & Crick, who were credited with the discovery of the structure of DNA) was stripped of several titles (including Chancellor Emeritus) following some controversial (and scientifically invalid) comments on the nature of race, genetics and intelligence. Comfortingly, the vast majority of the scientific community opposed his viewpoints on the matter, and in fact it has long been held that a ‘genetic race’ is not a scientifically stable concept.

James Watson.jpg — James Watson himself. I bet Rosalind Franklin never said anything like this… Source: Wikipedia.

You might ask: why is that? There are perceivable differences in the various peoples of the world, surely some of those could be related to both a ‘race’ and a ‘genetic identity’, right? Well, the issue is primarily due to the lack of identifiability of genetic variants that can be associated with a race. Decades of research in genetic variation across the global human population indicates that, due to the massive size of the human population and levels of genetic variation, it is functionally impossible to pinpoint down genetic variants that uniquely identify a ‘race’. Human genetic variation is such a beautiful spectrum of alleles that it becomes impossible to reliably determine where one end of the spectrum ends or begins, or to identify a strict number of ‘races’ within the kaleidoscope of the human genome.

How does this relate to 23AndMe?

How does this relate to your ‘23AndMe’ results? Well, chances are that some genetic variants might be able to be traced back to a particular region (e.g. Europe, somewhere). But naturally, there’s a significant number of limitations to this kind of inference; notably, that we don’t have reliable references from ancient history to draw upon very often. This, combined with the fact that humans have mixed among ourselves (and even with other species) for millennia, means that tracing back individual alleles is exceedingly difficult.

Genetic variation and non-identifiability of race figure — A diagram of exactly why identifying a genetic basis for race is impossible in humans. A) The ‘idealised’ version of race; people are easily classified by their genetic identity, with some variation within each classification (in this case, race) but still distinctiveness between them. B) The reality of human genetic variation, which makes it exceedingly difficult to make any robust or solid boundaries between groups of people due to the sheer amount of variation. Source: Harvard University blog.

This is exponentially difficult for people who might have fewer sequenced ancestors or relatives; without the reference for genetic variation, it can be even harder to trace their genetic ancestry. Such is the case for Indigenous Australians, for which there is a distinct lack of available genetic data (especially compared to European-descended Australians).

The non-genetic components

The genetic non-identifiability of race is but one aspect which contradicts the rationality of genetic race testing. As we discussed in the previous post on The G-CAT, the connection between genetic underpinning and physicality is not always clear or linear. The role of the environment on both the expression of genetic variation, as well as the general influence of environment on aspects such as behaviour, philosophy, and culture necessitate that more than the genome contributes to a person’s identity. For any given person, how they express and identify themselves is often more strongly associated with their non-genetic traits such as beliefs and culture.

genetic vs cultural inheritance.jpg — A comparison of genetic vs. cultural inheritance, which demonstrates (as an example) how other factors (in this case, other people) influence the passing on of cultural traits. Remember that this but one aspect of the factors that determine culture and identity, and equally (probably more) complex networks exist for other influences such as environment and development. Source: Creanza *et al.* (2017), *PNAS*.

These factors cannot reliably be tested under a genetic framework. While there may be some influence of genes on how a person’s psychology develops, it is unlikely to be able to predict the lifestyle, culture and complete identity of said person. For Indigenous Australians, this has been confounded by the corruption and disruption of their identity through the Stolen Generation. As a result, many Indigenous descendants may not appear (from a genetic point of view) to be purely Indigenous but their identity and culture as an Indigenous person is valid. To suggest that their genetic ancestry more strongly determines their identity than anything else is not only naïve from a scientific perspective, but nothing short of a horrific simplification and degradation of those seeking to reclaim their identity and culture.

The non-identifiability of genetic race

The science of genetics overwhelmingly suggests that there is no fundamental genetic underpinning of ‘race’ that can be reliably used. Furthermore, the impact of non-genetic factors on determining the more important aspects of personal identity, such as culture, tradition and beliefs, demonstrates that attempts to delineate people into subcategories by genetic identity is an unreliable method. Instead, genetic research and biological history fully acknowledges and embraces the diversity of the global human population. As it stands, the phrase ‘human race’ might be the most biologically-sound classification of people: we are all the same.

Direction of evolution

We’ve talked previously on The G-CAT about how the genetic underpinning of certain evolutionary traits can change in different directions depending on the selective pressure it is under. Particularly, we can see how the frequency of different alleles might change in one direction or another, or stabilise somewhere in the middle, depending on its encoded trait. But thinking bigger picture than just the genetics of one trait, we can actually see that evolution as an entire process works rather similarly.

Divergent evolution

The classic view of the direction of evolution is based on divergent evolution. This is simply the idea that a particular species possess some ancestral trait. The species (or population) then splits into two (for one reason or another), and each one of these resultant species and populations evolves in a different way to the other. Over time, this means that their traits are changing in different directions, but ultimately originate from the same ancestral source.

Evidence for divergent evolution is rife throughout nature, and is a fundamental component of all of our understanding of evolution. Divergent evolution means that, by comparing similar traits in two species (called homologous traits), we can trace back species histories to common ancestors. Some impressive examples of this exist in nature, such as the number of bones in most mammalian species. Humans have the same number of neck bones as giraffes; thus, we can suggest that the ancestor of both species (and all mammals) probably had a similar number of neck bones. It’s just that the giraffe lineage evolved longer bones whereas other lineages did not.

Homology figure — A diagrammatic example of homologous structures in ‘hand’ bones. The coloured bones demonstrate how the same original bone structures have diverged into different forms. Source: BiologyWise.

Convergent evolution

But of course, evolution never works as simply as you want it to, and sometimes we can get the direct opposite pattern. This is called convergent evolution, and occurs when two completely different species independently evolve very similar (sometimes practically identical) traits. This is often caused by a limitation of the environment; some extreme demand of the environment requires a particular physiological solution, and thus all species must develop that trait in order to survive. An example of this would be the physiology of carnivorous marsupials like Tasmanian devils or thylacines: despite being in another Class, their body shapes closely resemble something more canid. Likely, the carnivorous diet places some constraints on physiology, particularly jaw structure and strength.

Convergent evol intelligence — A surprising example of convergent evolution is cognitive ability in apes and some bird groups (e.g. corvids). There’s plenty of other animal groups more related to each of these that don’t demonstrate the same level of cognitive reasoning (based on the traits listed in the centre): thus, we can conclude that cognition has evolved twice in very, very different lineages. Source: Emery & Clayton, 2004.

A more dramatic (and potentially obvious) example of convergent evolution would be wings and the power of flight. Despite the fact that butterflies, bees, birds and bats all have wings and can fly, most of them are pretty unrelated to one another. It seems much more likely that flight evolved independently multiple times, rather than the other 99% of species that shared the same ancestor lost the capacity of flight.

Parallel evolution

Sometimes convergent evolution can work between two species that are pretty closely related, but still evolved independently of one another. This is distinguished from other categories of evolution as parallel evolution: the main difference is that while both species may have shared the same start and end point, evolution has acted on each one independent of the other. This can make it very difficult to diagnose from convergent evolution, and is usually determined by the exact history of the trait in question.

Parallel evolution is an interesting field of research for a few reasons. Firstly, it provides a scenario in which we can more rigorously test expectations and outcomes of evolution in a particular environment. For example, if we find traits that are parallel in a whole bunch of fish species in a particular region, we can start to look at how that particular environment drives evolution across all fish species, as opposed to one species case studies.

Marsupial handedness.jpg — Here’s another weird example; different populations of marsupials (particularly kangaroos and wallabies) show preferential handedness depending on where the population is. That is, different populations of different species of marsupials shows parallel evolution of handedness, since they’re related to one another but have evolved it independently of the other species. Source: Giljov et al. (2015).

Following from that logic, it is then important to question the mechanisms of parallelism. From a genetic point of view, do these various species use the same genes (and genetic variants) to produce the same identical trait? Or are there many solutions to the selective question in nature? While these questions are rather complicated, and there has been plenty of evidence both for and against parallel genetic underpinning of parallel traits, it seems surprisingly often that many different genetic combinations can be used to get the same result. This gives interesting insight into how complex genetic coding of traits can be, and how creative and diverse evolution can be in the real world.

Where is evolution going?

Cat phylogeny — An example of all three types of evolutionary trajectory in a single phylogeny of cats (you know how we do it here at The G-CAT). This phylogeny consists of two distinct genera; one with one species (P. aliquam) and another of three species (the red box indicates their distance). Our species have three main physical traits: coat colour, ear tufts and tail shape. At the ancestral nodes of the tree, we can see what the ancestor of these species looked like for these three traits. Each of these traits has undergone a different type of evolution. The tufts on the ears are the result of divergent evolution, since F. tuftus evolved the trait differently to its nearest relative, F. griseo. Contrastingly, the orange coat colour of F. tuftus and P. aliquam are the result of convergent evolution: neither of these species are very closely related (remembering the red box) and evolved orange coats independently of one another (since their ancestors are grey). And finally, the fluffy tails of F. hispida and F. griseo can be considered parallel evolution, since they’re similar evolutionarily (same genus) but still each evolved tail fluff independently (not in the ancestor). This example is a little convoluted, but if you trace the history of each trait in the phylogeny you can more easily see these different patterns.

So, where is evolution going for nature? Well, the answer is probably all over the place, but steered by the current environmental circumstances. Predicting the evolutionary impacts of particular environmental change (e.g. climate change) is exceedingly difficult but a critical component of understanding the process of evolution and the future of species. Evolution continually surprises us with creative solution to complex problems and I have no doubt new mysteries will continue to be thrown at us as we delve deeper.