Figures
Map of Europe showing a lactose molecule, Linearbandkeramik pottery, and the inferred origin location of lactase persistence/dairying coevolution.
Lactase persistence, the genetic trait that enables adult humans to digest the milk sugar lactose, is thought to have coevolved with the culturally transmitted practice of dairying. In this work the authors use computer simulations, conditioned on archaeological and genetic data, to infer that this coevolution process began about 7,500 years ago in a region between the northern Balkans and Central Europe, probably in association with the Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture (see Itan et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000491).
Image Credit: Yael Pinchevsky, Yuval Itan, Joachim Burger, and Mark G. Thomas. Photograph credit: Sabine Schade-Lindig.
Citation: (2009) PLoS Computational Biology Issue Image | Vol. 5(8) August 2009. PLoS Comput Biol 5(8): ev05.i08. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pcbi.v05.i08
Published: August 28, 2009
Copyright: © 2009 Itan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Lactase persistence, the genetic trait that enables adult humans to digest the milk sugar lactose, is thought to have coevolved with the culturally transmitted practice of dairying. In this work the authors use computer simulations, conditioned on archaeological and genetic data, to infer that this coevolution process began about 7,500 years ago in a region between the northern Balkans and Central Europe, probably in association with the Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture (see Itan et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000491).
Image Credit: Yael Pinchevsky, Yuval Itan, Joachim Burger, and Mark G. Thomas. Photograph credit: Sabine Schade-Lindig.