Genetic Drivers of Human Thermoregulatory Skin Traits

Humans use sweating as the primary mechanism to dump body heat. Humans’ ability to effectively harness sweating as a thermoregulatory mechanism is a product of the evolution of a massively increased sweat gland density and a drastic reduction in the size of body hair. Accordingly, humans have the distinction of being the “the naked sweaty ape”. I will present the advances our lab has made in identifying the genetic basis for how these unique and essential adaptations of human physiology evolved and discuss the implications of these findings for studying the development and evolution of other adaptive human traits.