- Thrifty phenotype
It has been suggested that in poor nutritional conditions, a pregnant female can modify the development of her unborn child such that it will be prepared for survival in an environment in which resources are likely to be short, resulting in a thrifty phenotype (Hales & Barker, 1992 [Hales, C.N., & Barker, D.J. (1992). Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus: the thrifty phenotype hypothesis. "Diabetologia". 35: 595-601. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1644236&dopt=Citation PubMed] ] ). Individuals with a thrifty phenotype will have "a smaller body size, a lowered metabolic rate and a reduced level of behavioural activity… adaptations to an environment that is chronically short of food" (Bateson & Martin, 1999 [Bateson, P., & Martin, P. (1999). "Design for a life: How behaviour develops". London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-05064-8, pp. 110-111] ). Those with a thrifty phenotype who actually develop in an affluent environment may be more prone to metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type II diabetes, whereas those who have received a positive maternal forecast will be adapted to good conditions and therefore better able to cope with rich diets. This idea, which is also known as the Barker hypothesis (Barker, 1992 [Barker, D. J. P. (Ed.). (1992). "Fetal and infant origins of adult disease". London: BMJ Books. ISBN 0-7279-0743-3] ), is now widely (if not universally) accepted and is a source of grave concern for societies undergoing a transition from sparse to better nutrition (Robinson, 2001 [Robinson, R. (2001). The fetal origins of adult disease. No longer just a hypothesis and may be critically important in south Asia [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/322/7283/375 Editorial] . "British Medical Journal". 322: 375-376.] ).
ee also
*
Evolutionary developmental psychology
*Evolutionary physiology
*Trivers-Willard hypothesis
*Thrifty gene hypothesis References
External links
* [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/collection/barker_hypothesis British Medical Journal Topic Collections: Barker Hypothesis]
* [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22thrifty+phenotype%22&btnG=Search Google Scholar]
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