Hominids adapted to metabolize ethanol long before human-directed fermentation
Abstract
Many modern human diseases are attributed to incompatibility between our current environment and the environment for which our genome is adapted. It is unclear whether this model applies to alcoholism. We investigated this possibility by studying alcohol dehydrogenase class IV (ADH4), the first enzyme exposed to ethanol in the digestive tract that is capable of metabolizing ethanol. We resurrected ancestral ADH4 enzymes from various points in the ∼70 million y of primate evolution and identified a single mutation occurring ∼10 million y ago that endowed our ancestors with a markedly enhanced ability to metabolize ethanol. This change occurred approximately when our ancestors adopted a terrestrial lifestyle and may have been advantageous to primates living where highly fermented fruit is more likely.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- January 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1404167111
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..112..458C