The ADH1B Arg47His polymorphism in East Asian populations and expansion of rice domestication in history

Abstract

BackgroundThe emergence of agriculture about 10,000 years ago marks a dramatic change in human evolutionary history. The diet shift in agriculture societies might have a great impact on the genetic makeup of Neolithic human populations. The regionally restricted enrichment of the class I alcohol dehydrogenase sequence polymorphism (ADH1BArg47His) in southern China and the adjacent areas suggests Darwinian positive selection on this genetic locus during Neolithic time though the driving force is yet to be disclosed.ResultsWe studied a total of 38 populations (2,275 individuals) including Han Chinese, Tibetan and other ethnic populations across China. The geographic distribution of the ADH1B*47His allele in these populations indicates a clear east-to-west cline, and it is dominant in south-eastern populations but rare in Tibetan populations. The molecular dating suggests that the emergence of the ADH1B*47His allele occurred about 10,000~7,000 years ago.ConclusionWe present genetic evidence of selection on the ADH1BArg47His polymorphism caused by the emergence and expansion of rice domestication in East Asia. The geographic distribution of the ADH1B*47His allele in East Asia is consistent with the unearthed culture relic sites of rice domestication in China. The estimated origin time of ADH1B*47His allele in those populations coincides with the time of origin and expansion of Neolithic agriculture in southern China.

Deep History of East Asian Populations Revealed Through Genetic Analysis of the Ainu

“…The onset of positive selection on these two variants was estimated to have occurred ,11,000 years ago (Peng et al 2010;Chen et al 2015). Therefore, the Ainu ancestors may have shared Holocene environmental factors favoring these variants with other East Asians, although gene flow between the Ainu and other East Asians, as we inferred from genome-wide SNP data, may also have contributed to their high frequencies in the Ainu.…”

Macro-evolutionary studies of cultural diversity: a review of empirical studies of cultural transmission and cultural adaptation

“…A number of recent studies have given us a window on the pace of genetic evolution in the face of cultural changes in subsistence practices. Lactose tolerance has evolved multiple times among those keeping livestock for dairy [5,6], alleles protective against prion-based neurodegenerative disease (kuru) in the Fore of New Guinea have been selected for by cannibalism [7] and the frequency of alleles associated with alcohol dehydrogenase appears to map onto the history of rice cultivation in south Asia [8]. These all provide demonstrations of recent strong selection causing rapid evolution, occurring within the past few thousand years or less, in genetic traits associated with changes in the subsistence strategy and diet.…”

The Nutrigenome and Gut Microbiome: Chronic Disease Prevention with Crop Phytochemical Diversity

“…This mutation has been correlated with increased alcohol metabolism, and decreased propensity for developing alcoholism (Chen, Peng, Wang, Tsao, & Yin, 2009). Interestingly, the ADH1B*47His SNP is most prevalent in the southeast populations of China with the geographic distribution overlapping the areas of origin and expansion of rice domestication (Li et al, 2007;Peng et al, 2010). It is thought that as rice became a Neolithic staple for use in fermented food and beverages, the *47His allele was beneficial for preventing some of the deleterious effects of alcohol consumption (Peng et al, 2010).…”