Aren't potatoes everyone's favorite vegetable to eat? If you get to know that the potatoes that we have been eating are more than just being our crispy fingered fries, that will be truly shocking.
Thousands of years ago in the Adean highlands of Peru, potatoes became an agricultural crop. The extreme whether led ancient Peruvian population to start agriculture. The practice of crop cultivation since then till now led a change in the genomes of Andean population due to intense weather conditions.
THE STUDY:
To test this change, 7000 years old whole genomes of seven ancient Andean people was compared with 64 modern day genomes of todays Andean population. The primary purpose of the study was to analyze whether there has been any change in the genome structure of these particular people due to extreme weather conditions.
The researchers found that ancient Andean people turned wild tubers to create domesticated potatoes. These potatoes became a staple of their diet which in turn altered their genomes. The reason behind the alteration is the chilly temperatures, low oxygen levels and harsh ultra-violet radiation. The adaption to this extreme environment leads to co-evolution that happened with the ancient Andean population. However, the diet that they depended on also adapted to the extreme weather conditions. Hence, it altered the genomes of the ancient Andean people proving a co-evolution between a agricultural crop and human beings.
Moreover,
the genome comparison between ancient and modern Andean people showed that
European population when it started consuming more grains they underwent
different set of genome changes than those who relied on potatoes. The Europeans
who relied on grains had higher number of copies of the gene coding for amylase
which is an enzyme in saliva that breaks down starch.
So
before eating potatoes in so many amazing and tasty forms remember that they
might be causing a change in you secretly. Watch out!
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