Amylase Copy Number and Diet

Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — General High School — AP/IB College

Saved By

11 Users

Description

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that investigated whether there is a correlation between a population’s diet and copies of a certain gene.

Many of the foods we eat contain starch, which is broken down by an enzyme called salivary amylase. This enzyme is encoded by a gene, AMY1, that can have 2 to 15 copies per person. In this study, scientists compared AMY1 copy numbers in populations with high- and low-starch diets (Panel A), and the cumulative proportions of individuals with different AMY1 copy numbers in the sampled populations (Panel B).

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information.

Student Learning Targets

Analyze and interpret data from a scientific figure.
Discuss why having more copies of a certain gene may provide a selective advantage.

Estimated Time

Within one 50-minute class period.

Key Terms

copy number variation (CNV), digestion, gene duplication, histogram, line graph, saliva, selection pressure, starch

Primary Literature

Perry, George H., Nathaniel J. Dominy, Katrina G. Claw, Arthur S. Lee, Heike Fiegler, Richard Redon, John Werner, et al. “Diet and evolution of human amylase gene copy number variation.” Nature Genetics 39, 10 (2007): 1256–1260. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng2123.