BUFFALO, New York—A new study shows that indigenous Andean people in Peru have more copies of the gene for the saliva-based digestive enzyme amylase than any other population in the world. biology Report. Amylase breaks down complex starches into simpler sugars, making the starch easier to digest. Omar Gokkumen of the University at Buffalo and colleagues examined data from more than 3,700 people to track the average number of salivary amylase genes in 85 populations around the world. Team members determined that the average number of genes was highest among the Andean people in Peru and the Akimel O’odham people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico. The researchers focused on Peruvians because there were too few Akimel O’odham individuals in the sample to test for signs of natural selection in the population. When it comes to eating potatoes, being able to produce more amylase may have been a major advantage for the ancient Peruvians, who were domesticated in the Andes about 10,000 years ago, Gokkumen said. Gokkumen said that people who did not have extra copies of the salivary amylase gene may not have had successful pregnancies, or people who had inherited extra copies of the gene might have had more children. “It’s really a life-or-death situation,” he explained. The functional benefit of having more salivary amylase copies is not yet fully understood by scientists, but the genes may influence the microbiome, metabolism, and immune system. Read the original scholarly article about this research nature communication. To read more about Andean societies of the past, visit “return to snake mountain“
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