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Natural Selection for Lactose Tolerance

Topic

  • Genetics
  • Mutations
  • Evolution
  • Population Genetics

Resource Type

  • Videos
  • Animations

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege

Duration

00:00:46
Saved By
7 Users
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View in Spanish

Description

This animation shows how a mutation that allows adult humans to digest milk can be lost or spread under different circumstances.

Whether a mutation provides an advantage in the course of human evolution depends on both environmental and cultural factors. Advantageous mutations can spread rapidly through a population due to natural selection. The animation illustrates an example of this process with a mutation that allows adult humans to produce lactase, an enzyme used to digest milk, in cultures that have adopted dairy farming.

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different components or steps of natural selection.

Key Terms

adaptation, dairy, digestion, enzyme, lactase, milk, mutation, selective pressure

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.

Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)

Video files meet criteria.

Version History

Date Published 02.05.11
Date Updated 04.27.22

AP Environmental Science (2020)

Topic(s): 2.6, 3.8, 5.3

Materials

Large (MOV) 6 MB
Large (WMV) 6 MB
Small (MOV) 3 MB
Small (WMV) 3 MB
Transcript (PDF) 141 KB
Spanish dub (MP4) 13 MB
Transcript - Español (PDF) 168 KB

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