Study shows how a potato-based diet changed the genetics of Andean people

Reuters features research co-authored by Omer Gokcumen on the evolutionary advantages of certain genes, spurred by the consumption of potatoes 800,000 years ago. “Evolution is chiseling a sculpture, not constructing a building,” said Gokcumen. “It’s not as if Indigenous Andeans gained additional AMY1 copies once they started eating potatoes. Instead, those with lower copy numbers were eliminated from the population over time, perhaps because they had fewer offspring, and the ones with the higher copy numbers remained.”