Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30966891›Full record

ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2019

Evolutionary and developmental mismatches are consequences of adaptive developmental plasticity in humans and have implications for later disease risk.

Peter D Gluckman, Mark A Hanson, Felicia M Low

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
64citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

64 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Homo sapiens, industrialisation and the environmental mismatch hypothesis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Birth weight and birth length affect future fracture risk differently in men and women.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2024
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Theorizing epidemiology, the stories bodies tell, and embodied truths: a status update on contending 21International journal of social determinants of health and health services · 2024
    Review

4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Peter D Gluckman1 Liggins Institute, University of Auckland , New Zealand.
Mark A Hanson3 Institute of Developmental Sciences, University of Southampton , Southampton SO17 1BJ , UK.
Felicia M Low1 Liggins Institute, University of Auckland , New Zealand.

Funding

British Heart Foundation RG/15/17/31749Department of Health
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A discrepancy between the phenotype of an individual and that which would confer optimal responses in terms of fitness in an environment is termed 'mismatch'. Phenotype results from developmental plasticity, conditioned partly by evolutionary history of the species and partly by aspects of the developmental environment. We discuss two categories of such mismatch with reference primarily to nutrition and in the context of evolutionary medicine. The categories operate over very different timescales. A developmental mismatch occurs when the phenotype induced during development encounters a different environment post-development. This may be the result of wider environmental changes, such as nutritional transition between generations, or because maternal malnutrition or placental dysfunction give inaccurate information about the organism's likely future environment. An evolutionary mismatch occurs when there is an evolutionarily novel environment. Developmental plasticity may involve immediate adaptive responses (IARs) to preserve survival if an environmental challenge is severe, and/or predictive adaptive responses (PARs) if the challenge does not threaten survival, but there is a fitness advantage in developing a phenotype that will be better adapted later. PARs can have long-term adverse health consequences if there is a developmental mismatch. For contemporary humans, maternal constraint of fetal growth makes PARs likely even if there is no obvious IAR, and this, coupled with the pervasive nutritionally dense modern environment, can explain the widespread observations of developmental mismatch, particularly in populations undergoing nutritional transition. Both developmental and evolutionary mismatch have important public health consequences and implications for where policy interventions may be most effective. This article is part of the theme issue 'Developing differences: early-life effects and evolutionary medicine'.

Indexed as

Adaptation, PhysiologicalBiological EvolutionDisease SusceptibilityFetal DevelopmentHumansdevelopmentdevelopmental plasticityevolutionmismatchpredictive adaptive responsetrade-offs

Identifiers

PMID30966891
PMCPMC6460082

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.