Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/annual-reviews/on-the-evolution-of-lactase-persistence-in-humans-G4UkooLDiu
References
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Copyright
- Copyright 2017 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved
- ISSN
- 1527-8204
- eISSN
- 1545-293X
- DOI
- 10.1146/annurev-genom-091416-035340
- pmid
- 28426286
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Lactase persistencethe ability of adults to digest the lactose in milkvaries widely in frequency across human populations. This trait represents an adaptation to the domestication of dairying animals and the subsequent consumption of their milk. Five variants are currently known to underlie this phenotype, which is monogenic in Eurasia but mostly polygenic in Africa. Despite being a textbook example of regulatory convergent evolution and gene-culture coevolution, the story of lactase persistence is far from clear: Why are lactase persistence frequencies low in Central Asian herders but high in some African hunter-gatherers? Why was lactase persistence strongly selected for even though milk processing can reduce the amount of lactose? Are there other factors, outside of an advantage of caloric intake, that contributed to the selective pressure for lactase persistence? It is time to revisit what we know and still do not know about lactase persistence in humans.
Journal
Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics – Annual Reviews
Published: Aug 31, 2017