Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe
欧洲的乳业、疾病和乳糖酶持久性的演变
作者：Richard P. Evershed, George Davey Smith, Mélanie Roffet-Salque et al.
链接：
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05010-7
摘要：
在欧洲和许多非洲、中东和南亚人口中，乳糖耐受性（LP）是在过去1万年中进化出来的最强烈的单基因性状。在此，我们提供了欧洲在过去9000年里在550多个考古遗址的约7000个陶器脂肪残留物中提取牛奶的详细分布。从新石器时代，欧洲开始广泛饮用牛奶，但在空间和时间上的强度不同。
值得注意的是，与新石器时代，随着史前牛奶饮用水平的不同而变化的乳糖耐受性选择并不更能解释乳糖耐受性等位基因频率轨迹。在英国生物库50万名当代欧洲人的队列研究中，乳糖耐受性基因型与牛奶摄入量的相关性较弱，与改善体质或健康指标的相关性不一致。这表明，乳糖耐受性的频率快速增加应考虑其他原因，使其有益的影响。
我们认为，乳糖酶不持久的个体在牛奶有供应时饮用牛奶，但在饥荒和/或病原体暴露增加的条件下不饮用，推动了史前欧洲人的乳糖耐受性选择。模型似然值的比较表明，种群波动、聚居密度和野生动物开发利用作为这些驱动因素的替代物，比牛奶饮用程度更能解释乳糖耐受性的改变。这些发现为史前牛奶饮用和乳糖耐受性进化提供了新的视角。
Abstract：
In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent inpiduals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation—proxies for these drivers—provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.
古生物学Paleontology
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