Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe
Evershed R.P. Davey Smith G. Roffet-Salque M. Timpson A. Diekmann Y. Lyon M.S. Cramp L.J.E. Casanova E. Smyth J. Whelton H.L. Dunne J. Brychova V. Šoberl L. Gerbault P. Gillis R.E. Heyd V. Johnson E. Kendall I. Manning K. Marciniak A. Outram A.K. Vigne J.-D. Shennan S. Bevan A. Colledge S. Allason-Jones L. Amkreutz L. Anders A. Arbogast R.-M. Bălăşescu A. Bánffy E. Barclay A. Behrens A. Bogucki P. Carrancho Alonso Á. Carretero J.M. Cavanagh N. Claßen E. Collado Giraldo H. Conrad M. Csengeri P. Czerniak L. Dębiec M. Denaire A. Domboróczki L. Donald C. Ebert J. Evans C. Francés-Negro M. Gronenborn D. Haack F. Halle M. Hamon C. Hülshoff R. Ilett M. Iriarte E. Jakucs J. Jeunesse C. Johnson M. Jones A.M. Karul N. Kiosak D. Kotova N. Krause R. Kretschmer S. Krüger M. Lefranc P. Lelong O. Lenneis E. Logvin A. Lüth F. Marton T. Marley J. Mortimer R. Oosterbeek L. Oross K. Pavúk J. Pechtl J. Pétrequin P. Pollard J. Pollard R. Powlesland D. Pyzel J. Raczky P. Richardson A. Rowe P. Rowland S. Rowlandson I. Saile T. Sebők K. Schier W. Schmalfuß G. Sharapova S. Sharp H. Sheridan A. Shevnina I. Sobkowiak-Tabaka I. Stadler P. Stäuble H. Stobbe A. Stojanovski D. Tasić N. van Wijk I. Vostrovská I. Vuković J. Wolfram S. Zeeb-Lanz A. Thomas M.G.
11 August 2022Nature Research
Nature
2022#608Issue 7922336 - 345 pp.
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 years1. Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions2,3. 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 Biobank4,5 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 individuals 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.
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Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Palaeogenetics Group, Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (iomE), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Department of Dairy, Fat and Cosmetics, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnement (UMR 7209), CNRS–Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle–Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France
ICArEHB, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Great North Museum (former Museum of Antiquities), Newcastle, United Kingdom
National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, Netherlands
Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
UMR 7044, ARCHIMEDE, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Department of Bioarchaeology, ‘Vasile Pârvan’ Institute of Archaeology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Centre of Excellence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt, Germany
Cotswold Archaeology, Cirencester, United Kingdom
German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, Germany
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States
Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Comunicación, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain
Laboratorio Evolución Humana, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain
Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humana, Madrid, Spain
Network Archaeology, Lincoln, United Kingdom
LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage, Bonn, Germany
Patrimonio & Arte Research Group, Extremadura University, Badajoz and Cáceres, Badajoz, Spain
Geosciences Centre, Coimbra University, Coimbra, Portugal
Landesamt für Archaeologie, Dresden, Germany
Herman Ottó Museum, Miskolc, Hungary
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
Institute of Archaeology, University Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland
UMR 6298, ARTEHIS, University of Burgundy, Dijon, France
Dobó István Castle Museum, Eger, Hungary
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum, Dundee, United Kingdom
Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology, Mainz, Germany
Archaeological Department, Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany
UMR 8215, Trajectoires, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology, Saxony Anhalt/State Museum of Prehistory, Halle/Saale, Germany
CFA Archaeology, Musselburgh, United Kingdom
Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cornwall Council, Truro, United Kingdom
Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
‘I.I. Mechnikov’, Odessa National University, Odessa, Ukraine
Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, Venice, Italy
Institute of Archaeology of Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
Prehistory Department, Institut of Archaeology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
Department of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
UMR 7044, INRAP Grand-Est Sud, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
GUARD Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Kostanay State University, Kostanay, Kazakhstan
Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, United Kingdom
Oxford Archaeology East, Oxford, United Kingdom
Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Tomar, Portugal
Terra e Memória Institute, Mação, Portugal
Archeologický ústav SAV, Nitra, Slovakia
Kelten Römer Museum Manching, Manching, Germany
MSHE C.N. Ledoux, CNRS & University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
Leicestershire County Council Museums, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
The Landscape Research Centre Ltd., West Heslerton, United Kingdom
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, United Kingdom
Tees Archaeology, Hartlepool, United Kingdom
Oxford Archaeology North, Lancaster, United Kingdom
Archaeological Consultancy, Emsworth, United Kingdom
Institute of History, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
Institute of History and Archaeology, UB RAS, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation
National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland
Geology Department, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
University of Belgrade, Belgrad, Serbia
Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Staatliches Museum für Archäologie, Chemnitz, Germany
Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz, Dir. Landesarchäologie, Speyer, Germany
UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
Nuclear Dosimetry Department, Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Department of Cultures, Section of Archaeology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Archaeology South-East, UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Eunomia Research & Consulting, Bristol, United Kingdom
Department of Archaeology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
North Yorkshire County Council HER, Northallerton, United Kingdom
Faculty of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Department of History, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Organic Geochemistry Unit
MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit
Population Health Sciences
NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre
Department of Genetics
Palaeogenetics Group
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
School of Archaeology
Department of Dairy
School of Life Sciences
Archéozoologie
ICArEHB
Department of Archaeology
Department of Geography
Institute of Prehistory
UCL Institute of Archaeology
Great North Museum (former Museum of Antiquities)
National Museum of Antiquities
Institute of Archaeological Sciences
UMR 7044
Department of Bioarchaeology
Institute of Archaeology
Römisch-Germanische Kommission
Cotswold Archaeology
German Archaeological Institute
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Área de Prehistoria
Laboratorio Evolución Humana
Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humana
Network Archaeology
LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage
Patrimonio & Arte Research Group
Geosciences Centre
Landesamt für Archaeologie
Herman Ottó Museum
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology
Institute of Archaeology
UMR 6298
Dobó István Castle Museum
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum
Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology
Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum
Archaeological Department
UMR 8215
State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology
CFA Archaeology
Cornwall Archaeological Unit
Istanbul University
‘I.I. Mechnikov’
Ca’ Foscari
Institute of Archaeology of Academy of Science of Ukraine
Prehistory Department
Department of Archaeology
UMR 7044
GUARD Glasgow
Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology
Kostanay State University
Royal Cornwall Museum
Oxford Archaeology East
Polytechnic Institute of Tomar
Terra e Memória Institute
Archeologický ústav SAV
Kelten Römer Museum Manching
MSHE C.N. Ledoux
Department of Archaeology
Leicestershire County Council Museums
The Landscape Research Centre Ltd.
Canterbury Archaeological Trust
Tees Archaeology
Oxford Archaeology North
Archaeological Consultancy
Institute of History
Institute of History and Archaeology
National Museums Scotland
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology
Geology Department
Department of Humanistic Studies
University of Belgrade
Faculty of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology and Museology
Staatliches Museum für Archäologie
Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz
UCL Genetics Institute
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Nuclear Dosimetry Department
Department of Cultures
Archaeology South-East
Eunomia Research & Consulting
Department of Archaeology
North Yorkshire County Council HER
Faculty of Archaeology
Department of History
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