Got Lactase?

(from HHMI BioInteractive.org)

Lactose Intolerance: Fact or Fiction?

You may know someone who is lactose intolerant – but do you really know what that means? This
worksheet will test your knowledge by having you evaluate several statements about lactose
intolerance. You can type up your answers in a Word document to turn in. You can

Part 1: Watch Got Lactase?

Read the statements in the table below, before watching
the film Got Lactase? The Co-evolution of Genes and
Culture. Then, in the column labeled “Before,” choose T
for any statement you believe to be true and F for any
statement you believe to be false. After watching the film,
choose either T or F in the column labeled “After.”

Link to the short film:

(https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/making-fittest-got-lactase-coevolution-genes-and-
culture)

Before After Statement

Choose an item. Baby mammals depend on milk to survive.
Choose an item.

Choose an item. Milk

Choose an item. is a healthy food for an adult cat.
Choose an item. Throughout
Choose an item. human history, people have always consumed the milk of other
animals.
Choose an item. Lactose
Choose an item. is a sugar in milk.
Choose an item. Most
Choose an item. human adults around the world can digest lactose in milk; a minority of
people cannot digest lactose.
Choose an item. Digesting lactose causes a person’s blood glucose levels to increase.
Choose an item.

Choose an item. Lactose

Choose an item. intolerance is an allergy to milk and milk products.
Choose an item. Lactose
Choose an item. intolerance is a genetic trait.

After completing the table, write one or two sentences to explain your answer to each statement
(repeated below). Include any evidence from the film that supports your answer. If your answer
changed after watching the film, explain why it changed.

Statement Evaluation
1. Baby mammals depend on milk to survive.

Click or tap here to enter text.

 2. Milk is a healthy food for an adult cat.

Click or tap here to enter text.

3. Throughout human history, people have always consumed the milk of other animals.

Click or tap here to enter text.

4. Lactose is a sugar in milk.

Click or tap here to enter text.

5. Most human adults around the world can digest the lactose in milk; a minority of people cannot
digest lactose.

Click or tap here to enter text.

6. Digesting lactose causes a person’s blood glucose levels to increase.

Click or tap here to enter text.

7. Lactose intolerance is an allergy to milk and milk products.

Click or tap here to enter text.

8. Lactose intolerance is a genetic trait.

Click or tap here to enter text.

“Mother’s milk” is packed with the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that support the growth,
development, and survival of baby mammals. The sugar lactose is the main carbohydrate in milk.
Lactose can be cleaved into two simple sugars, glucose and galactose, by lactase, and enzyme
produced in the small intestine. The two smaller sugars are readily absorbed through the intestinal
wall into the bloodstream for delivery to the cells of the body, where they are used for energy.

After infant mammals are weaned from their mother’s milk, lactase production shuts down, presumably
because it is no longer needed. This condition is called lactase nonpersistence – meaning that
production of the lactase enzyme does not persist into adulthood. The general condition for mammals is
not to consume milk after weaning and to be lactase nonpersistent. Some populations of humans are
unusual in that adults continue to consume milk from other mammals, such as cows.

If a person who is lactase nonpersistent drinks milk, undigested lactose passes from the small intestine
to the large intestine, where it is fermented by bacteria. Fermentation produces various gases in the
large intestine, which can cause abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, and diarrhea – all symptoms of
lactose intolerance. Worldwide, most adults are lactose intolerant, although some people may not know
it because their symptoms are mild. Only a minority of human adults (about 35% of the global human
population) continues to produce lactase into adulthood and can drink milk without any problems.
These individuals are said to be lactase persistent or lactose tolerant.

There are several ways to test whether someone is lactase presentient. In the short film, Got Lactase?
Co-evolution of Genes and Culture, the narrator, Dr. Spencer Wells, takes a blood glucose test to deduce
his lactase status. In this activity you will examine the results of blood glucose conducted on six different
adults to determine who is lactase persistent (lactose tolerant) or lactase nonpersistent (lactose
intolerant).

Part 2: Got Lactase? Blood Glucose Data Analysis

Procedure Part A
1. Examine the data table below. It shows the blood glucose levels of six individuals tested in Dr.
Sarah Tishkoff’s laboratory. Each person drank a liter of milk. After baseline (i.e., time 0 minutes)
blood glucose levels were measured and recorded. Blood glucose levels were again measured at
15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes after drinking the milk. Glucose levels were measured using glucose
strips and a glucose reader similar to the one Dr. Wells used in the film.

Plot the results from the six

individuals from the table in a
graph. An example graph that
includes Dr. Wells’ blood glucose
test results is shown here. Make
sure to include a legend for your
graph. (Enter the data from the table into Excel and make your own graph. Upload it to the Canvas drop
box as a separate file.)

Questions for Part A

1. Why is measuring blood glucose levels an indicator of someone’s lactase activity?

Click or tap here to enter text.

2. Divide the individuals into two groups (A and B), based on their blood glucose test results. Write
the names of the individuals in each group, including Dr. Spencer Wells.

Click or tap here to enter text.

3. Explain your rationale for dividing the individuals into these groups using data to support your
answer.

Click or tap here to enter text.

4. Based on these data, do you predict that individuals in Group A are lactase persistent or
nonpersistent? Describe the evidence that supports this claim.

Click or tap here to enter text.

5. Based on these data, do you predict that individuals in Group B are lactase persistent or
nonpersistent? Describe the evidence that supports this claim. The members of Group B are
lactase nonpersistent (or lactose intolerant).

Click or tap here to enter text.

6. If your performed the same blood glucose test on a group of people who are from the Maasai
population in Kenya, predict whether their results would be more like Group A or Group B.
Explain your prediction. (Hint: Remember from the film that the Maasai people are pastoralists.)

Click or tap here to enter text.

7. A person taking a blood glucose test is usually told to fast prior to the test. Why do you think
that might be necessary?

Click or tap here to enter text.

Procedure for Part B

Another common test used to determine whether a person is lactase persistent is the hydrogen
breath test. This test measures the amount of hydrogen in a person’s breath. As you read in the
 introduction, undigested lactose is fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, producing several
gases, including hydrogen. These gases exit the body as flatulence; they can also be absorbed into
the blood, circulated to the lungs, and eliminated through the breath.

Questions for Part B

1. Review the data in the following table. It shows the hydrogen breath levels of four individuals
tested for lactase persistence. Time 0 represents the time before drinking milk and the other
times are after drinking milk.

Graph the data for the individuals in the table, including a title, labels for the x-and y-axes, and a legend.
(Enter the data from the table into Excel and make your own graph. Upload it to the Canvas drop box as
a separate file.)

Questions for Part B

1. Which individuals appear to be lactase persistent? Use data to support your answer.

Click or tap here to enter text.

 2. Which individuals appear to be lactase nonpersistent? Use data to support your answer.

Click or tap here to enter text.

3. Can you think of another type of test you might do to determine a person’s lactase status?
Describe in one or two sentences.

Click or tap here to enter text.

Part III: Lactase Persistence: Evidence for Selection

The ability of some humans to digest lactose – the sugar in milk – is evidence of recent human evolution.
These “lactase-persistent” individuals have a mutation in their DNA that keeps the lactase gene turned
on into adulthood, and they are therefore able to digest lactose. Evidence from different fields suggests
that these lactase-persistence mutations arose in the last 10,000 years in different populations and
increased in frequency by natural selection.

Each individual has two copies of each chromosome, including the region around the lactase-persistent
gene, shown as the white rectangles next to each individual in the figure below. Lactase-persistent
individuals have red silhouettes; lactase-nonpersistent individual are blue. Comparing DNA sequences
around the lactase gene in different individuals has revealed several neutral variations, or markers,
which are denoted by different colored bands. In the first column, the red band indicates a genetic
variant or mutation associated with lactase persistence – the lactase-persistence allele. When natural
selection favors a beneficial allele, such as the lactase persistence allele (red band), that allele is more
likely to be passed on from one generation to the next. Over many generations, the beneficial allele
increases in frequency. The frequencies of the nearby neutral markers (orange and yellow bands) also
increase. These markers do not provide any selective advantage but are “swept” along with the
beneficial allele. Column 2 shows evidence of this process as a reduction in genetic diversity in this
particular region of chromosome 2. Over time, the association between the beneficial allele and neutral
markers breaks down as a result of recombination, and the evidence for a selective sweep eventually
disappears.

Interpreting the Figure

1. In column 1, the red band represents the lactase-persistent mutation. Why is it more prevalent
in column 2, which shows the same DNA region in the same population after many generations?

Click or tap here to enter text.

2. How many individuals in column 2 are homozygous for the lactase-persistence allele? How many
are homozygous for the surround region (i.e., the white rectangle)?

Click or tap here to enter text.

3. How many individuals in column 3 are homozygous for the lactase-persistence allele? How many
are homozygous for the whole region?

Click or tap here to enter text.

4. Why would scientists want to identify regions in the genome that are homozygous in many
individuals in a population (i.e., regions of homozygosity, or reduced diversity)?

Click or tap here to enter text.