% pubman genre = article @article{item_3317893, title = {{Ancient proteins provide evidence of dairy consumption in eastern Africa}}, author = {Bleasdale, Madeleine and Richter, Kristine Korzow and Janzen, Anneke and Brown, Samantha and Scott, Ashley and Zech, Jana and Wilkin, Shevan and Wang, Ke and Schiffels, Stephan and Desideri, Jocelyne and Besse, Marie and Reinold, Jacques and Saad, Mohamed and Babiker, Hiba and Power, Robert C. and Ndiema, Emmanuel and Ogola, Christine and Manthi, Fredrick K. and Zahir, Muhammad and Petraglia, Michael D. and Trachsel, Christian and Nanni, Paolo and Grossmann, Jonas and Hendy, Jessica and Crowther, Alison and Roberts, Patrick and Goldstein, Steven T. and Boivin, Nicole L.}, language = {eng}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-20682-3}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, address = {London}, year = {2021}, abstract = {{Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens, with implications for health, birth spacing and evolution. Key questions nonetheless remain regarding the origins of dairying and its relationship to the genetically-determined ability to drink milk into adulthood through lactase persistence (LP). As a major centre of LP diversity, Africa is of significant interest to the evolution of dairying. Here we report proteomic evidence for milk consumption in ancient Africa. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) we identify dairy proteins in human dental calculus from northeastern Africa, directly demonstrating milk consumption at least six millennia ago. Our findings indicate that pastoralist groups were drinking milk as soon as herding spread into eastern Africa, at a time when the genetic adaptation for milk digestion was absent or rare. Our study links LP status in specific ancient individuals with direct evidence for their consumption of dairy products.}}, contents = {Results - Dairying evidence in prehistoric northeastern Africa (Sudan). - New evidence for milk consumption in eastern Africa (Kenya). Discussion Methods - Experimental design. - Dental calculus sampling. - Proteomic extraction methods. - LC-MS/MS analysis. - Proteomic data analysis. - Byonic. - Mascot and scaffold. - Milk peptide identifications. - Stable isotope analysis of bone collagen. - Stable isotope analysis of tooth enamel. - Morphological identification of faunal remains. - Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry. - Radiocarbon dating.}, journal = {{Nature Communications}}, volume = {12}, eid = {632}, }