Natural Selection for Lactose Tolerance
Resource Type
Duration
00:00:46Description
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)
Version History
AP Environmental Science (2020)
Topic(s): 2.6, 3.8, 5.3