Evolutionary Adaptations to Dietary Changes

Luca, Francesca; Perry, George H.; Rienzo, Anna Di

doi:10.1146/annurev-nutr-080508-141048

Cited by 186 publications

(151 citation statements)

References 176 publications

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“…Although the energetic significance of cooking food is clear (7), consumption of raw meat and aquatic resources by hunter-gatherers is well documented (71). Moreover, extant humans are the product of a long history of genetic adaptations to dietary shifts, of which only a very few and recent ones are relatively well known (72).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe

Roebroeks

Villa

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

570

317

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The timing of the human control of fire is a hotly debated issue, with claims for regular fire use by early hominins in Africa at ∼1.6 million y ago. These claims are not uncontested, but most archaeologists would agree that the colonization of areas outside Africa, especially of regions such as Europe where temperatures at time dropped below freezing, was indeed tied to the use of fire. Our review of the European evidence suggests that early hominins moved into northern latitudes without the habitual use of fire. It was only much later, from ∼300,000 to 400,000 y ago onward, that fire became a significant part of the hominin technological repertoire. It is also from the second half of the Middle Pleistocene onward that we can observe spectacular cases of Neandertal pyrotechnological knowledge in the production of hafting materials. The increase in the number of sites with good evidence of fire throughout the Late Pleistocene shows that European Neandertals had fire management not unlike that documented for Upper Paleolithic groups.human evolution | Paleolithic archeology | fireplaces | hafting adhesives T he emergence of stone tool manufacture and the control of fire are undoubtedly the two most significant events in the technological evolution of early humans. Although stone tool use and manufacture were regular activities from at least 2.6 million y ago (1), the timing of the human control of fire is a controversial issue (2), with some claims for regular fire use by early hominins in Africa at ∼1.6 million y ago (3-5). Longer chronologies for the use of fire include Wrangham's recent hypothesis that fire was a central evolutionary force toward larger human brains (6-9): eating cooked foods made early hominin digestion easier, and the energy formerly spent on digestion was freed up, enabling their energy-expensive brains to grow. Using fire to prepare food made early humans move away from the former feed-as-you-go-and-eat-raw-food strategy and toward the sharing of cooked foods around fires, which became attractive locations for increased social interaction between individuals. Wrangham situates these developments around the time of the emergence of Homo erectus, approximately two million y ago. Most archeologists would agree that the colonization of areas outside of Africa, especially of regions such as Europe where temperatures at time dropped below freezing (10), was tied to the use of fire to bridge gaps in the energy budget and in resource availability during winter (11). For much later periods, a greater control and more extensive use of fire is seen by some (12, 13) as one of the behavioral innovations that emerged in Africa among modern humans, favoring their spread throughout the world and their eventual evolutionary success.How strong are these hypotheses? To what extent are they backed up by archeological data on hominin use of fire? Our focus in this review is on Europe, an area of the Old World for which we have a rich record with a large number of sampling points distributed in time and space, w...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe

Roebroeks

Villa

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

570

317

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“…These dental traits indicate crushing of hard food items during mastication and a diet that included seeds, rich in protein and fat, but do not preclude a diet including underground storage organs (USOs), such as roots and tubers, covered with abrasive soil and rich in carbohydrates [23 -25]. The relative contribution of seeds versus USOs to the early hominin diet is currently an area of active discussion and research (reviewed in [26]). The genus Homo is first recognized in Africa approximately 2.5 Ma.…”

Section: The Importance Of Metabolic Changes During Human Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic signatures of diet-related shifts during human origins

et al. 2010

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There are numerous anthropological analyses concerning the importance of diet during human evolution. Diet is thought to have had a profound influence on the human phenotype, and dietary differences have been hypothesized to contribute to the dramatic morphological changes seen in modern humans as compared with non-human primates. Here, we attempt to integrate the results of new genomic studies within this well-developed anthropological context. We then review the current evidence for adaptation related to diet, both at the level of sequence changes and gene expression. Finally, we propose some ways in which new technologies can help identify specific genomic adaptations that have resulted in metabolic and morphological differences between humans and non-human primates.

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“…Among the sundry forms of genetic variation, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with high population differentiation are regarded as candidates of adaptation to recent changes in human environment and culture, and have been shown to play an important role in acquiring distinct physiological traits and susceptibility to different diseases among the populations (Barreiro and Quintana-Murci 2010;Chen et al 2010;Gibbons 2010;Ingelsson et al 2010;Laland et al 2010;Luca et al 2010;Richerson et al 2010). Thus, the identification of causal SNPs with signatures of positive selection and underlying functional changes is crucial to a better understanding of the relationship between genomic variation and human health as well as gene-environmental interactions (Nielsen et al 2007;Laland et al 2010;Nei et al 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive selection of an incretin gene in Eurasian populations

Chang

Cai

et al. 2010

Genome Res.

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Diversities in human physiology have been partially shaped by adaptation to natural environments and changing cultures. Recent genomic analyses have revealed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with adaptations in immune responses, obvious changes in human body forms, or adaptations to extreme climates in select human populations. Here, we report that the human GIP locus was differentially selected among human populations based on the analysis of a nonsynonymous SNP (rs2291725). Comparative and functional analyses showed that the human GIP gene encodes a cryptic glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) isoform (GIP55S or GIP55G) that encompasses the SNP and is resistant to serum degradation relative to the known mature GIP peptide. Importantly, we found that GIP55G, which is encoded by the derived allele, exhibits a higher bioactivity compared with GIP55S, which is derived from the ancestral allele. Haplotype structure analysis suggests that the derived allele at rs2291725 arose to dominance in East Asians ∼8100 yr ago due to positive selection. The combined results suggested that rs2291725 represents a functional mutation and may contribute to the population genetics observation. Given that GIP signaling plays a critical role in homeostasis regulation at both the enteroinsular and enteroadipocyte axes, our study highlights the importance of understanding adaptations in energy-balance regulation in the face of the emerging diabetes and obesity epidemics.

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Evolutionary Adaptations to Dietary Changes

Cited by 186 publications

References 176 publications

On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe

On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe

Genomic signatures of diet-related shifts during human origins

Adaptive selection of an incretin gene in Eurasian populations

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