Overview
- A Nature Communications study reports that potato domestication 6,000–10,000 years ago favored higher copies of AMY1, a gene for a starch‑digesting saliva enzyme, in Indigenous Andeans.
- The team analyzed DNA from Peruvian Quechua speakers and used ultra‑long reads with global comparisons to date the rise in high copy numbers to well before European arrival.
- Indigenous people in Peru today average about 10 AMY1 copies, which is two to four more than any of the 83 other populations surveyed.
- The authors estimate that people with roughly 10 or more copies had a 1.24% advantage per generation in survival or reproduction.
- A direct comparison found Peruvians carry about 10 AMY1 copies on average versus six in the Maya, supporting a link to the Andes’ long history of potato farming.