I wonder about the application of this idea to humans in general- give that the sampling was pretty restricted- to the Dalmatian islands in Croatia- especially since they are relating these processes to human demographic processes within the last 200K years.

I bet that the pattern would be completely different if they sampled throughout human diversity- especially African populations..

I wonder about the application of this idea to humans in general- give that the sampling was pretty restricted- to the Dalmatian islands in Croatia- especially since they are relating these processes to human demographic processes within the last 200K years.

yeah, I agree, the conlcusions about demographic processes are pretty tentative. But for a given city in a country like, say, Croatia, you could imagine much mixing between people who previously lived in isolated villages coming together and the conclusions holding. The mixing of slightly inbred populations in an urban setting has been pretty well documented in Iceland (check out Reykjavik in figure 1).
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal...ull/ ng1492.html

On a larger scale (continental-scale migration), though, I'm not sure the conclusions would hold.

Blood pressure and cholesterol levels? I don't know about the disadvantages of a very low cholesterol level, but it seems genes that tend to raise your blood pressure are only disadvantageous in modern societies where you don't have to worry about bleeding to death from an injury. Same with obesity and fat-storing genes. Anyone able to comment on this?

it seems genes that tend to raise your blood pressure are only disadvantageous in modern societies where you don't have to worry about bleeding to death from an injury. Same with obesity and fat-storing genes. Anyone able to comment on this?

sounds a lot like the ancestral succeptibility model for common disease.
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/ 05...ntageous_14.php