Status message
Apply today for the HHMI BioInteractive Ambassador Academy! The Academy is a multi-year professional development experience designed to support evidence-based teaching practices. We’re looking for educators with diverse backgrounds and teaching contexts who are committed to centering equity in their classrooms.Sickle Cell: Natural Selection in Humans
Resource Type
Duration
00:18:26Description
This film explores the evolutionary connection between an infectious disease, malaria, and a genetic condition, sickle cell disease.
Scientist Tony Allison first noticed a connection between malaria and the sickle cell trait while working in East Africa in the 1950s. His discovery is one of the best understood examples of natural selection in humans. The film also features two patients who describe living with sickle cell disease and a hematologist, Natasha Archer, who describes the mechanism of how the sickle cell trait protects against malaria.
An audio descriptive version of the film is available via our media player. Select the “AD” button to enable audio description.
Key Terms
allele, fitness, gene, hematology, hemoglobin, infectious disease, red blood cell, selective advantage, trait
Primary Literature
Allison, A. C. 1954. “The distribution of the sickle‐cell trait in East Africa and elsewhere, and its apparent relationship to the incidence of subtertian malaria.” Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 48, 4: 312–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/0035-9203(54)90101-7.
Allison, A. C. 1954. “Protection afforded by sickle‐cell trait against subtertian malaria infection.” BMJ 1, 4857: 290–294. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4857.290.
Archer, Natasha M., Nicole Petersen, Martha A. Clark, Caroline O. Buckee, Lauren M. Childs, and Manoj T. Duraisingh. 2018. “Resistance to Plasmodium falciparum in sickle cell trait erythrocytes is driven by oxygen-dependent growth inhibition.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, 28: 7350–7355. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804388115.
Terms of Use
Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.
Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)
Version History
NGSS (2013)
HS-LS3.A, HS-LS3.B, HS-LS4.B, HS-LS4.C
AP Biology (2019)
EVO-1, SYI-3
IB Biology (2016)
3.4, 5.2, 6.2, 10.2
Vision and Change (2009)
CC1, CC3; DP1, DP6