Sickle-cell trait protection against malaria
Protección del rasgo falciforme frente a la malaria
- Date
- 1954 · confidence high
- Place
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Credited to
- Anthony C. Allison
- People
- 👤 Anthony Clifford Allison1925–2014
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
He showed that carriers of one copy of the sickle-cell haemoglobin gene resist malaria better, which explains its high frequency in malarial areas. It was the first demonstration of natural selection by a pathogen in humans.
Fieldwork in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (1949-1953), published in the British Medical Journal (1954).
What it led to
- the concept of balanced polymorphism in human genetics
- the study of human-pathogen coevolution
- the genetics of malaria resistance