Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
BMC Evol Biol. 2010 Mar 30;10:89. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-10-89.
Genes and culture are believed to interact, but it has been difficult to find direct evidence for the process. One candidate example that has been put forward is lactase persistence in adulthood, i.e. the ability to continue digesting the milk sugar lactose after childhood, facilitating the consumption of raw milk. This genetic trait is believed to have evolved within a short time period and to be related with the emergence of sedentary agriculture.
Here we investigate the frequency of an allele (-13910*T) associated with lactase persistence in a Neolithic Scandinavian population. From the 14 individuals originally examined, 10 yielded reliable results. We find that the T allele frequency was very low (5%) in this Middle Neolithic hunter-gatherer population, and that the frequency is dramatically different from the extant Swedish population (74%).
We conclude that this difference in frequency could not have arisen by genetic drift and is either due to selection or, more likely, replacement of hunter-gatherer populations by sedentary agriculturalists.
人们认为基因和文化相互作用，但很难找到这一过程的直接证据。乳糖耐受持续到成年（即儿童期后仍能继续消化乳糖）是被提出的候选例子之一，这有助于食用生奶。这种遗传特征被认为是在很短的时间内进化而来的，与久坐不动的农业的出现有关。
在这里，我们研究了与新石器时代斯堪的纳维亚人群中乳糖耐受持续相关的等位基因（-13910*T）的频率。在最初检查的 14 个人中，有 10 个人得到了可靠的结果。我们发现，在这个中石器时代的狩猎采集者群体中，T 等位基因的频率非常低（5%），与现存的瑞典人群（74%）有显著差异。
我们的结论是，这种频率上的差异不可能是由遗传漂变引起的，要么是由于选择，要么更可能是由于狩猎采集者群体被久坐不动的农民所取代。
