Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Therefore, lactase persistence is often cited as an example of both recent human evolution [15] and, as lactase persistence is a genetic trait but animal husbandry a cultural trait, gene-culture coevolution in the mutual human-animal symbiosis initiated with the advent of agriculture.
In most mammals, production of lactase diminishes after infants are weaned from maternal milk. However, 5% to 90% of the human population possess an advantageous autosomal mutation in which lactase production persists after infancy. The geographic distribution of lactase persistence is concordant with areas of high milk intake.
Lactase persistence is a rare ability among mammals. [74] Because it involves a single gene, it is a simple example of convergent evolution in humans. Other examples of convergent evolution, such as the light skin of Europeans and East Asians or the various means of resistance to malaria, are much more complicated.
An example of this is the demographic transition, which describes the fall of birth rates within industrialized societies. Dual inheritance theorists hypothesize that the demographic transition may be a result of a prestige bias, where individuals that forgo reproduction to gain more influence in industrial societies are more likely to be ...
A well-researched example is the finding that dairy farming created the selection pressure that led to the spread of alleles for adult lactase persistence. [30] Analyses of the human genome have identified many hundreds of genes subject to recent selection, and human cultural activities are thought to be a major source of selection in many cases.
The majority of humans actually follow this protocol as well, and down-regulate lactase production around 3-5 years of age. Interestingly, though, the majority of caucasians, mainly those from northern european background, continue to have elevated lactase activity all the way into adulthood, and so they exhibit “lactase persistence”.
Lactase (EC 3.2.1.108) is an enzyme produced by many organisms and is essential to the complete digestion of whole milk.It breaks down the sugar lactose into its component parts, galactose and glucose.
Mendelian traits behave according to the model of monogenic or simple gene inheritance in which one gene corresponds to one trait. Discrete traits (as opposed to continuously varying traits such as height) with simple Mendelian inheritance patterns are relatively rare in nature, and many of the clearest examples in humans cause disorders.