Most Europeans take drinking milk for granted: It’s the everyday consumption of an everyday drink. In the Zodiac academic lecture on Tuesday March 2nd Mark Thomas, professor of Evolutionary Genetics of the University College London, will show us that for most adult humans milk is very far from an everyday drink and that milk is something that we have specifically evolved to be able to consume in the relatively recent past.
The ability to digest the sugar in milk is called lactase persistence and Darwin’s engine of evolutionary change, natural selection, has probably worked harder on this trait than on any other biological characteristic of Europeans in the last 10,000 years. In this lecture professor Mark Thomas will show us how genetics, archaeology, anthropology, physiology, ancient DNA and computer simulations can be combined to understand where, when and how lactase persistence co-evolved with the culture of dairying in Europeans. See below for the abstract.
The lecture starts at 16.00 hours in Zodiac (WUR-building 531), college room C85 Admission is free. After the lecture there’s a drink in the entrance hall at Zodiac.
Programme
16.00 uur: introduction
16.05 uur: lecture
16.45 uur: discussion
17.00 uur: drink, entrance hall Zodiac
Zodiac Academic Lectures
Zodiac Academic Lectures are an initiative of the Department of Animal Sciences. Every Tuesday of the month a chair group presents a guest speaker to conduct a lecture on an actual topic within the field of animal sciences. Calendar: April 6th, June 1st .
More information:
See www.abg.wur.nl/UK for further information about the Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre at Wageningen University & Research centre. For more information about Professor Mark Thomas see www.ucl.ac.uk/biology/academic-staff/thomas/thomas.htm.
Informatie Diana Meurs-Schrik diana.meurs-schrik@wur.nl
Abstract Zodiac academic lecture - March 2nd 2010
Guest speaker: Mark Thomas, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, University College London
The origins of milk drinking in Europe
Everyday consumption of an everyday drink?
Most Europeans take drinking milk for granted. It¹s the everyday consumption of an everyday drink. But for most adult humans - indeed, for most adult mammals - milk is very far from an everyday drink. Milk is something that we have specifically evolved to be able to consume in the relatively recent past.
The ability to digest the sugar in milk is called lactase persistence and Darwin¹s engine of evolutionary change, natural selection, has probably worked harder on this trait than on any other biological characteristic of Europeans in the last 10,000 years. In this presentation we will see how genetics, archaeology, anthropology, physiology, ancient DNA and computer simulations can be combined to understand where, when and how lactase persistence co-evolved with the culture of dairying in Europeans.
The origins of lactase persistence in Europe
Lactase persistence is common among people of European ancestry, but with the exception of some African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian groups, is rare or absent elsewhere in the world. Lactase gene haplotype conservation around a polymorphism strongly associated with lactase persistence in Europeans (213,910 C/T) indicates that the derived allele is recent in origin and has been subject to strong positive selection.
Furthermore, ancient DNA work has shown that the 213,910*T (derived) allele was very rare or absent in early Neolithic central Europeans. It is unlikely that lactase persistence would provide a selective advantage without a supply of fresh milk, and this has lead to a gene-culture co-evolutionary model where lactase persistence is only favoured in cultures practicing dairying, and dairying is more favoured in lactase persistent populations.
Results from computer simulation
We have developed a flexible demic computer simulation model to explore the spread of lactase persistence, dairying, other subsistence practices and unlinked genetic markers in Europe and western Asia¹s geographic space. Using data on 213,910*T allele frequency and farming arrival dates across Europe, and approximate Bayesian computation to estimate parameters of interest, we infer that the 213,910*T allele first underwent selection among dairying farmers around 7,500 years ago in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe, possibly in association with the dissemination of the Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture over Central Europe. Furthermore, our results suggest that natural selection favouring a lactase persistence allele was not higher in northern latitudes through an increased requirement for dietary vitamin D.