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Lactase persistence or lactose tolerance is the continued activity of the lactase enzyme in adulthood, allowing the digestion of lactose in milk. In most mammals , the activity of the enzyme is dramatically reduced after weaning . [ 1 ]
Some populations have developed genetic changes to allow the digestion of lactose: lactase persistence. [78] Other populations developed cooking methods like milk fermentation. [78] Lactase persistence in humans evolved relatively recently (in the last 10,000 years) among some populations.
Lactase (EC 3.2.1.108) is an enzyme produced by many organisms and is essential to the complete digestion of whole milk. It breaks down the sugar lactose into its component parts, galactose and glucose .
In the milk of most mammals, lactose is generally the major carbohydrate, so when you have a glass of milk, and it gets through your stomach to the small intestine, that lactose gets chopped into glucose and galactose by an enzyme that’s fittingly called lactase. The gene responsible for production of the lactase enzyme is expressed ...
In most mammals, production of lactase diminishes after infants are weaned from maternal milk. However, 5% to 90% of the human population possess an advantageous autosomal mutation in which lactase production persists after infancy. The geographic distribution of lactase persistence is concordant with areas of high milk intake.
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Lactose, or milk sugar, is a disaccharide composed of galactose and glucose and has the molecular formula C 12 H 22 O 11.Lactose makes up around 2–8% of milk (by mass). The name comes from lact (gen. lactis), the Latin word for milk, plus the suffix -ose used to name sugars.
Lactase persistence One of the best known examples is the prevalence of the genotype for adult lactose absorption in human populations, such as Northern Europeans and some African societies, with a long history of raising cattle for milk.