Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Lactose Tolerance Map of Europe

More European genetics! This was published in Nature. Don't worry about the top map. The middle one shows genetic diversity in the milk-producing genes of European cattle. The bottom one shows the geographic distribution of lactose tolerance in Europe. Darker shades of orange indicate greater diversity.

So why is this so interesting? Because the high level of genetic diversity in north-central European cattle is an indication that that's where cattle have been around the longest: that's the area where their genes have had the most time to diversify, like an old tree whose branches have had a lot of time to spread out. And see that dashed black line in the bottom map? That indicates the area where the fossil record shows that people have been herding cattle the longest. So the genetic record and the archaeological record really strongly agree: cattle have been around for a long time in north-central Europe and southern Scandinavia.

Now look at the bottom map - the one that shows lactose tolerance in the human population. Of course, all humans digest milk as babies. But it's only thanks to some relatively new genes that many of us are able to digest milk as adults. These are the genes that make us lactose tolerant. And where are those genes concentrated? In almost the exact same area as the oldest European cattle! In other words, Europeans have evolved to be able to drink milk in just those areas where that adaptation has been most advantageous.

Those original cattle herders - the Funnel Beaker culture - established themselves aroundd 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. So, as with skin color, we're not talking about a real long time in which these evolutionary changes have occurred. Nonetheless, the population today in The Netherlands and Sweden is more than 99% lactose tolerant.

Europe isn't even the only place lactose tolerance evolved. It's happened even more recently in Africa, among three distinct populations in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Sudan, and as recently as 2,700 years ago. (No word on lactose tolerance in India, but given that they eat a lot of dairy and have had domesticated cows the longest, there's probably some interesting genetic history there as well.)

30 comments:

K H D and sometimes T said...

Blond haired, blue eyed milk guzzlers. Sounds like a super race to me.

I always did like creamy.

Anthrostudent said...

Just one glaring hole: sheep and goats were milked in Eastern Europe long before cattle were called into service as dairy animals. Reindeer are still milked in far northern climatic regions.

Anonymous said...

Note how Spaniards have high lactose tolerance despite being in the southwestern corner of Europe.

Anthrostudent said...

Mmmhmm. I think that most Westerners strongly link the word "milk" with "cow." The oldest evidence for dairying reveals that the cheeses were being made from sheep and goat milk. These milks also contain lactose, not to put too fine a point upon things! People would be just as likely to develop lactose tolerance in response to sheep and goat milk as to cow's milk. Dairy cattle are more of a luxury animal, requiring far more feed and producing far fewer young than the caprovines. Five dairy goats will eat the same as one cow, produce about the same total amount of milk, but will produce 10 - 20 offspring which will reach breeding or slaughter age much sooner than the one offspring of the cow. Once lactose tolerance is established in a population, it makes no matter whether the caprovines are replaced with bovids. This could create apparent anomalies on a map such as this, where cattle are newcomers to an area yet the people are highly lactose-tolerant.

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Invictus_88, Brits n Micks only take liquor not milk

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Those original cattle herders - the Funnel Beaker culture - established themselves aroundd 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. So, as with skin color, we're not talking about a real long time in which these evolutionary changes have occurred. Nonetheless, the population today in The Netherlands and Sweden is more than 99% lactose tolerant.
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