East African Humans Have Evolved Recently
A group of people in East Africa have evolved an adulthood lactose tolerance trait within the last 3000 years.
The finding is a striking example of a cultural practice — the raising of dairy cattle — feeding back into the human genome. It also seems to be one of the first instances of convergent human evolution to be documented at the genetic level. Convergent evolution refers to two or more populations acquiring the same trait independently…
…A research team led by Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Maryland has now resolved much of the puzzle. After testing for lactose tolerance and genetic makeup among 43 ethnic groups of East Africa, she and her colleagues have found three new mutations, all independent of each other and of the European mutation, which keep the lactase gene permanently switched on.
Full Story – NY Times
It’s a good thing they weren’t from Kansas. They’d have been arrested.
[tags] evolution, milk, Africa, nutrition [/tags]
