Effects of agricultural transitions on the evolution of human sensory systems
Files
First author draft
Date
2017-04-01
DOI
Authors
Veilleux, Carrie C.
Garrett, Eva C.
Bankoff, Richard J.
Dominy, Nathaniel J.
Perry, George H.
Melin, Amanda D.
Version
First author draft
OA Version
Citation
Carrie C Veilleux, Eva C Garrett, Richard J Bankoff, Nathaniel J Dominy, George H Perry, Amanda D Melin. 2017. "Effects of Agricultural Transitions on the Evolution of Human Sensory Systems." AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 86th Annual Meeting of the American-Association-of-Physical-Anthropologists (AAPA). New Orleans, LA, 2017-04-19 - 2017-04-22.
Abstract
The transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural food production, beginning
around 10,000 years ago, represents a dramatic shift in how people acquire and process
food. These shifts to agriculture resulted in major changes in human environments and
biology. For example, previous studies have identified selective effects of agriculture in
many genes, such as those involved in lactose and starch metabolism, as well as immune
function. In other primates and non-primate mammals, sensory systems are often tightly
linked to foraging strategy, such that dietary changes are associated with changes in the
genes involved in taste, olfaction, and color vision. In this study, we investigated how the
shift to agriculture, a major change in foraging strategy, influenced the evolution of
human sensory genes. We used targeted capture methods to sequence 898 genes
(encoding taste receptors, olfactory receptors, and cone photopigments) and 71 neutral
intergenic regions in 165 individuals from two distinct geographic regions: Uganda and
the Philippines. In each region, we sampled two hunter-gatherer populations and a
neighboring agricultural population, thus allowing us to compare sensory genes between
hunter-gatherer and paired agricultural populations across two independent transitions to
agriculture. We employed allele frequency-based tests (FST, population branch statistics,
and bayenv2) to identify candidate functional variants across sensory genes that may
reflect subsistence strategy adaptations. Preliminary results suggest that subsistence
strategy influenced subtle shifts of allele frequencies in functional variants in at least two
bitter taste receptor genes and thirteen olfactory receptor genes in populations from both
Uganda and the Philippines.