ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2023
Natural selection and human adiposity: crafty genotype, thrifty phenotype.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond Deterministic Fetal Programming: Intrauterine Exposures and the Multifactorial Origins of Adiposity.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Enhanced Metabolic Risks in Patients with Obesity and Nutritional Deficiencies in the U.S.: A TriNetX Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Multifactorial drivers of spatial variation in human body form across modern China.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The complexity of the relationship between thyroid disease and body weight.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Association analysis of obesity and hypertension and research on ethnic heterogeneity: a cross-sectional study based on different populations in Northwest China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Testosterone mediates life-history trade-offs in female mammals.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- In Search of Environmental Factors Associated With Global Differences in Birth Weight and BMI.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Adipose development is consistent across hunter-gatherers and diverges from western references.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- An evolutionary perspective for the exposome.Exposome · 2024Article
- Food insecurity as a cause of adiposity: evolutionary and mechanistic hypotheses.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Evolutionary perspectives on obesity have aimed to understand how the genetic constitution of individuals has been shaped by selective pressures such as famine, predation or infectious disease. The dual intervention model assumes strong selection on lower and upper limits of adiposity, but negligible fitness implications for intermediate adiposity. These frameworks are agnostic to age, sex and condition. I argue that selection has favoured a 'crafty genotype'-a genetic basis for accommodating variability in the 'fitness value' of fat through phenotypic plasticity, depending on the endogenous and exogenous characteristics of each individual. Hominin evolution occurred in volatile environments. I argue that the polygenetic basis of adiposity stabilizes phenotype in such environments, while also coordinating phenotypic variance across traits. This stability underpins reaction norms through which adiposity can respond sensitively to ecological factors. I consider how the fitness value of fat changes with age, sex and developmental experience. Fat is also differentially distributed between peripheral and abdominal depots, reflecting variable prioritization of survival versus reproduction. Where longevity has been compromised by undernutrition, abdominal fat may promote immediate survival and fitness, while long-term cardiometabolic risks may never materialize. This approach helps understand the sensitivity of adiposity to diverse environmental factors, and why the health impacts of obesity are variable. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Causes of obesity: theories, conjectures and evidence (Part I)'.
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