Genetic adaptations to potato starch digestion in the Peruvian Andes

Garcia, Obed A.; Brutsaert, T. D.; Bigham, A. W.; Jorgensen, Kelsey; Kiyamu Tsuchiya, Melisa

dc.contributor.author	Jorgensen, Kelsey
dc.contributor.author	Garcia, Obed A.
dc.contributor.author	Kiyamu Tsuchiya, Melisa
dc.contributor.author	Brutsaert, T. D.
dc.contributor.author	Bigham, A. W.
dc.date.accessioned	2022-12-14T14:25:33Z
dc.date.available	2022-12-14T14:25:33Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12866/12866
dc.description.abstract	Objectives: Potatoes are an important staple crop across the world and particularly in the Andes, where they were cultivated as early as 10,000 years ago. Ancient Andean populations that relied upon this high-starch food to survive could possess genetic adaptation(s) to digest potato starch more efficiently. Here, we analyzed genomic data to identify whether this putative adaptation is still present in their modern-day descendants, namely Peruvians of Indigenous American ancestry. Materials and methods: We applied several tests to detect signatures of natural selection in genes associated with starch-digestion, AMY1, AMY2, SI, and MGAM in Peruvians. These were compared to two populations who only recently incorporated potatoes into their diets, Han Chinese and West Africans. Results: Overlapping statistical results identified a regional haplotype in MGAM that is unique to Peruvians. The age of this haplotype was estimated to be around 9547 years old. Discussion: The MGAM haplotype in Peruvians lies within a region of high transcriptional activity associated with the REST protein. The timing of this haplotype suggests that it arose in response to increased potato cultivation and attendant consumption. For Peruvian populations that relied upon the high-starch potato as a major source of nutrition, natural selection likely favored these MGAM variant(s) that led to more efficient digestion and increased glucose production. This research provides further support that detecting subtle shifts in human diet can be a major driver of human evolutionary change, as these results indicate that there is global variation in human ability to better digest high-starch foods.	en_US
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	Wiley
dc.relation.ispartofseries	American Journal of Biological Anthropology
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
dc.subject	Andes	en_US
dc.subject	diet	en_US
dc.subject	natural selection	en_US
dc.subject	potato	en_US
dc.subject	starch digestion	en_US
dc.title	Genetic adaptations to potato starch digestion in the Peruvian Andes	en_US
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24656
dc.subject.ocde	https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.04.03
dc.subject.ocde	https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.06.07
dc.relation.issn	2692-7691