Extra gene copies were enough to make early humans' mouths water

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A member of the Hadza tribe of Tanzania roasts basketball-sized tubers the type of starchy food thought to have been a crucial addition to the diet of early humans. Photo by N. Dominy.
A member of the Hadza tribe of Tanzania roasts basketball-sized tubers, the type of starchy food thought to have been a crucial addition to the diet of early humans. Photo by N. Dominy.

To think that world domination could have begun in the cheeks. That's one interpretation of a discovery, published online September 9 in Nature Genetics, which indicates that humans carry extra copies of the salivary amylase gene.


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