A large proportion of East Asian people carry unique versions of the lactase gene that enables humans to digest the sugars in milk, new research hints. These genetic variants were likely inherited ...

Dr. Swallow compared the gene sequences of the lactase gene region between modern Africans and non-Africans in order to study the selective forces on the lactase gene during this time period.

A 2020 study in Current Biology found that the primary genetic variant causing lactase persistence in Europeans, rs4988235-A, may have arisen between 2,000 and 20,000 years ago.

The genes for lactase persistence have a dominant inheritance pattern, where you may inherit genes from one parent. You only need one of these gene variants from one of your parents to be able to ...

Looking at the genetics and the genetic changes through time, we can show that this trait, lactase persistence, was under huge, positive natural selection. It gave our ancestors a huge survival ...

The ability of adults to digest lactose appeared in humans relatively recently. Specific genetic changes -- known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs -- conveying lactase-persistence arose ...

Conceição, M. et al. (2023) "A Genetic Lab-on-Phone Test for Point-of-Care Diagnostic of Lactose Intolerance near Patient and in less than 90 Minutes", The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine ...

In some people of European or African descent, the lactase gene helps carriers digest a sugar called lactose in milk after they're weaned off of breast milk; this phenomenon is known as "lactase ...