# s-evol: smoking, mutation and evolution

<< A genetic mutation may have helped modern humans adapt to smoke exposure from fires and perhaps sparked an evolutionary advantage over their archaic competitors >>

Matt Swayne. Where there's smoke and a mutation there may be an evolutionary edge for humans. August 2, 2016

http://news.psu.edu/story/419626/2016/08/02/research/where-theres-smoke-and-mutation-there-may-be-evolutionary-edge

<< (..) a functionally significant change in the AHR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor) occurred uniquely in humans, relative to other primates, that would attenuate the response to many environmental pollutants, including chemicals present in smoke from fire use during cooking. >>

Troy D. Hubbard, Iain A. Murray, et al. Divergent Ah receptor ligand selectivity during hominin evolution. Mol Biol Evol (2016) doi: 10.1093/molbev/msw143 First published online: August 2, 2016

http://m.mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/07/17/molbev.msw143