Greenlandic Inuit show genetic signatures of diet and climate adaptation

The indigenous people of Greenland, the Inuit, have lived for a long time in the extreme conditions of the Arctic, including low annual temperatures, and with a specialized diet rich in protein and fatty acids, particularly omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). A scan of Inuit genomes for sig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 349; no. 6254; p. 1343
Main Authors: Fumagalli, Matteo, Moltke, Ida, Grarup, Niels, Racimo, Fernando, Bjerregaard, Peter, Jørgensen, Marit E, Korneliussen, Thorfinn S, Gerbault, Pascale, Skotte, Line, Linneberg, Allan, Christensen, Cramer, Brandslund, Ivan, Jørgensen, Torben, Huerta-Sánchez, Emilia, Schmidt, Erik B, Pedersen, Oluf, Hansen, Torben, Albrechtsen, Anders, Nielsen, Rasmus
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 18.09.2015
Subjects:
Acclimatization - genetics
Alleles
Arctic Regions
Body Height - genetics
Body Weight - genetics
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11 - genetics
Climate
Diet, High-Fat
Fatty Acids, Omega-3 - administration & dosage
Fatty Acids, Omega-3 - analysis
Female
Genetic Loci
Genome, Human - genetics
Genome-Wide Association Study
Greenland
Humans
Inuits - genetics
Linkage Disequilibrium
Male
Membrane Lipids - analysis
Membrane Lipids - genetics
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Selection, Genetic
Arctic Regions
Greenland
ISSN:1095-9203, 1095-9203
Online Access:Get more information
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Summary:The indigenous people of Greenland, the Inuit, have lived for a long time in the extreme conditions of the Arctic, including low annual temperatures, and with a specialized diet rich in protein and fatty acids, particularly omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). A scan of Inuit genomes for signatures of adaptation revealed signals at several loci, with the strongest signal located in a cluster of fatty acid desaturases that determine PUFA levels. The selected alleles are associated with multiple metabolic and anthropometric phenotypes and have large effect sizes for weight and height, with the effect on height replicated in Europeans. By analyzing membrane lipids, we found that the selected alleles modulate fatty acid composition, which may affect the regulation of growth hormones. Thus, the Inuit have genetic and physiological adaptations to a diet rich in PUFAs.
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ISSN:1095-9203
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aab2319