0000000000465362
AUTHOR
Zoé Pochon
Genomic Data from an Ancient European Battlefield Indicates On-Going Strong Selection on a Genomic Region Associated with Lactase Persistence Over the Last 3,000 Years
Lactase persistence (LP), the continued expression of lactase into adulthood, is the most strongly selected single gene trait over the last 10,000 years in multiple human populations. It has been posited that the primary allele causing LP among Eurasians, rs4988235*T (Enattah et al. 2008), only rose to appreciable frequencies during the Bronze and Iron Ages (Mathieson et al 2015; Olalde et al. 2018), long after humans started consuming milk from domesticated animals. This rapid rise has been attributed to an influx of peoples from the Pontic-Caspian steppe that began around 5,000 years ago (Allentoft et al. 2015; Furholt et al. 2016). We investigate the spatiotemporal spread of LP through a…
Low Prevalence of Lactase Persistence in Bronze Age Europe Indicates Ongoing Strong Selection over the Last 3,000 Years
Lactase persistence (LP), the continued expression of lactase into adulthood, is the most strongly selected single gene trait over the last 10,000 years inmultiple human populations. It has been posited that the primary allele causing LP among Eurasians, rs4988235-A [1], only rose to appreciable frequencies during the Bronze and Iron Ages [2, 3], long after humans started consuming milk from domesticated animals. This rapid rise has been attributed to an influx of people from the Pontic-Caspian steppe that began around 5,000 years ago [4, 5]. We investigate the spatiotemporal spread of LP through an analysis of 14 warriors from the Tollense Bronze Age battlefield in northern Germany ( 3,20…