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How humans’ ability to digest milk evolved from famine and disease

Landmark study is the first major effort to quantify how lactose tolerance developed.
  1. Ewen Callaway
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The dawn of dairy farming in Europe occurred thousands of years before most people evolved the ability to drink milk as adults without becoming ill. Now researchers think they know why: lactose tolerance was beneficial enough to influence evolution only during occasional episodes of famine and disease, explaining why it took thousands of years for the trait to become widespread1.

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Nature 608, 251-252 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02067-2

References

  1. Evershed, R. P. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7 (2022).

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