Lactose tolerance spread throughout Europe in only a few thousand years

EurekAlert! ^ | September 3, 2020 | Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz

[SunkenCiv]

The human ability to digest the milk sugar lactose after infancy spread throughout Central Europe in only a few thousand years. This is the conclusion reached by an international research team led by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). The researchers analyzed genetic material from the bones of individuals who had fallen in a conflict around 1200 B.C. on the banks of the Tollense, a river in the present-day German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania... found that only around one in eight of the assumed warriors had a gene variant that enabled them to break down the lactose in milk. "Of the present-day population living in this same area, around 90 percent have this lactase persistence," explained population geneticist Professor Joachim Burger of JGU, the lead author of the study. "This is a huge difference when you consider that there cannot be many more than 120 human generations between then and today." Aside from lactase persistence and a few other genetic variants, the genomes of the Tollense people are similar to that of today's inhabitants of northern Germany and the Baltic Sea region....

Back in 2007, Burger and his team established that almost none of the first sedentary farmers in Europe were lactase-persistent. "It is astonishing that at the time of the battle at the Tollense, more than 4,000 years after the introduction of agriculture in Europe, lactase persistence in adults was still so rare... With milk being a high-energy, relatively uncontamined drink, its ingestion may have provided greater chances of survival during food shortages or when supplies of drinking water were contaminated. Particularly during early childhood, in the years shortly after weaning, this factor often may have been decisive amongst prehistoric populations," Burger concluded.

[Gamecock]

I adore lactose. Gluten too!

[Bon of Babble]

I am lactose tolerant (Northern European descent). Husband is not (Southern European descent) - and every once in a while I forget... made linguini alfredo one night, which is full of cheese, cream and butter - and it sent him to the bathroom for most of the rest of the night.

I’d totally forgotten - and apparently he had too.

We’re still married, BTW.

[SunkenCiv]

Of course, it was linguini alfredo. All would naturally be forgiven. :^)

[nicollo]

"This is a huge difference when you consider that there cannot be many more than 120 human generations between then and today."

Really useful to remind ourselves how few generations there are when measured against years. It's like viewing yards versus miles. Makes so much more sense in human history to think in terms of generations instead of years.

[colorado tanker]

We make it with real Parmigiano Reggiano. Now that is good eats! We're both of English, Irish and German ancestry.

But, didn't the Italians invent Fettuccine Alfredo?

[Svartalfiar]

It's interesting that cows could drink contaminated water and convert it to pure milk that humans could drink. Why didn't the cows get sick on the same contaminated water that would have sickened humans?

Many animals don't get sick from water that humans can't really drink. They're still often infected with tapeworms or other symptoms that aren't readily visible. Also, many bacteria and viri can only infect certain animals. So something that kills a human may do nothing to a dog or cow or horse.

[SunkenCiv]

Why Did Europeans Evolve Into Becoming Lactose Tolerant?
Famine and disease from millennia ago likely spurred the rapid evolution of the trait on the continent
Brian Handwerk
Science Correspondent
July 27, 2022
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/famine-and-diseases-likely-drove-europeans-ability-to-digest-milk-180980483/

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 9/17/2020.