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From: RonO <rokimoto557@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: New amylase paper
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2024 13:36:45 -0500
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https://www.science.org/content/article/how-humans-evolved-starch-digesting-superpower-long-farming

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn0609

The paper I posted a month ago on the amylase gene duplications did not 
find the duplications in Neanderthals, but this Science paper claims 
that bits of the duplication can be found in 3 of the existing 
Neanderthal genomes.  The news article cites the older estimate that 
Neanderthals and Modern humans diverged 800,000 years ago to claim that 
the duplication could be much older than the the first paper indicated. 
The latest estimates puts the divergence at around 500,000 years with an 
additional migration out of Africa hybridization event around 250,000 
years ago.  The duplications could have been transferred to Neanderthal 
during the subsequent migration out of Africa around 250,000 years ago. 
Those African modern humans did not establish a viable population 
outside of Africa and were either absorbed into the Neanderthal 
population or eventually went extinct.

The news article tries to make a big deal about eating starch and having 
amylase genes.  Even our prosimian primate ancestors had an amylase 
gene.  The first duplication occurred in our simian ancestors that were 
frugivores (fruit eating) and so they had 2 copies.  Another duplication 
occurred in the common ancestor of the great apes, so Homo started with 
3 copies.  Our ancestors obviously ate plants.  The duplication event 
that the first paper estimated happened around 240,000 years ago 
occurred long before agriculture, but hunter gatherers of the time were 
obviously eating plants, and for more modern hunter gatherers it has 
been estimated that the gatherers supply 70% of the calories of a 
hunting clan, most of which is plant derived.  So there is no mystery 
why hunter gatherers may have selected for the duplication before the 
advent of agriculture.

Domestic dogs have been selected to have duplications of the amylase 
gene, but cats have not.  One estimate that I recall claimed that cats 
only had around 5% of the amylase activity in their guts as dogs.

Ron Okimoto