Oxford’s Robin Dunbar thinks TB may have co-evolved with us as a NAD producing symbiont when meat wasn’t available…

brain energy, hedge, NAD, TB 1 Minute

The paper is open access and is here. Short version: humans evolved to be meat eaters to handle their big brains’ energy budget. Myobacterium tuberculosis co-evolved to be initially a “hedge” symbiont: when meat wasn’t available (with its abundant NAD fuel for our brains) the microbe was there…

Pretty cool idea.

Published by jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Published