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.

• MeSH
• archeologie * MeSH
• banky biologického materiálu MeSH
• dějiny starověku MeSH
• divoká zvířata MeSH
• frekvence genu MeSH
• genotyp MeSH
• hladomor statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• keramika dějiny   MeSH
• kohortové studie MeSH
• laktasa * genetika   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mlékárenství * dějiny   MeSH
• mléko * metabolismus   MeSH
• nemoc * MeSH
• populační genetika * MeSH
• selekce (genetika) * MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny starověku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa epidemiologie   etnologie   MeSH
• Spojené království MeSH
• Názvy látek
• laktasa * MeSH

BACKGROUND: Human population history in the Holocene was profoundly impacted by changes in lifestyle following the invention and adoption of food-production practices. These changes triggered significant increases in population sizes and expansions over large distances. Here we investigate the population history of the Fulani, a pastoral population extending throughout the African Sahel/Savannah belt. RESULTS: Based on genome-wide analyses we propose that ancestors of the Fulani population experienced admixture between a West African group and a group carrying both European and North African ancestries. This admixture was likely coupled with newly adopted herding practices, as it resulted in signatures of genetic adaptation in contemporary Fulani genomes, including the control element of the LCT gene enabling carriers to digest lactose throughout their lives. The lactase persistence (LP) trait in the Fulani is conferred by the presence of the allele T-13910, which is also present at high frequencies in Europe. We establish that the T-13910 LP allele in Fulani individuals analysed in this study lies on a European haplotype background thus excluding parallel convergent evolution. We furthermore directly link the T-13910 haplotype with the Lactase Persistence phenotype through a Genome Wide Association study (GWAS) and identify another genomic region in the vicinity of the SPRY2 gene associated with glycaemic measurements after lactose intake. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that Eurasian admixture and the European LP allele was introduced into the Fulani through contact with a North African population/s. We furthermore confirm the link between the lactose digestion phenotype in the Fulani to the MCM6/LCT locus by reporting the first GWAS of the lactase persistence trait. We also explored other signals of recent adaptation in the Fulani and identified additional candidates for selection to adapt to herding life-styles.

• Klíčová slova
• Adaptive gene-flow, Fulani people, GWAS, Lactase persistence, Pastoralism,
• MeSH
• celogenomová asociační studie MeSH
• černoši genetika   MeSH
• laktasa genetika   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• molekulární evoluce MeSH
• osoby s přechodným pobytem a migranti MeSH
• tok genů MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH
• Názvy látek
• laktasa MeSH

Cattle dominate archaeozoological assemblages from the north-central Europe between the sixth and fifth millennium BC and are frequently considered as exclusively used for their meat. Dairy products may have played a greater role than previously believed. Selective pressure on the lactase persistence mutation has been modelled to have begun between 6000 and 4000 years ago in central Europe. The discovery of milk lipids in late sixth millennium ceramic sieves in Poland may reflect an isolated regional peculiarity for cheese making or may signify more generalized milk exploitation in north-central Europe during the Early Neolithic. To investigate these issues, we analysed the mortality profiles based on age-at-death analysis of cattle tooth eruption, wear and replacement from 19 archaeological sites of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture (sixth to fifth millennium BC). The results indicate that cattle husbandry was similar across time and space in the LBK culture with a degree of specialization for meat exploitation in some areas. Statistical comparison with reference age-at-death profiles indicate that mixed husbandry (milk and meat) was practised, with mature animals being kept. The analysis provides a unique insight into LBK cattle husbandry and how it evolved in later cultures in central and western Europe. It also opens a new perspective on how and why the Neolithic way of life developed through continental Europe and how dairy products became a part of the human diet.

• Klíčová slova
• Linearbandkeramik, Neolithic, cattle, husbandry practices, milk, mortality profiles,
• MeSH
• archeologie MeSH
• chov zvířat dějiny   MeSH
• dějiny starověku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• maso * MeSH
• mléko * MeSH
• skot MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny starověku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• skot MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH