In this episode of humanOS, Dan interviews Dr. Alon Keinan, Professor at the Department of Biological Statistics & Computational Biology at Cornell University. His lab investigates the evolutionary origin of genetic variation in human populations, and have been looking into what factors may have shaped human genetic propensity to convert long-chain fatty acids.
In his recent study in Nature, his team examined variants of the genes that code for fatty acid desaturase (FADS). This mutation consists of an insertion or a deletion of some DNA base pairs, which affects the expression of the fatty acid desaturase genes, which could then influence who well or poorly we create essential fatty acids from plant matter, which could subsequently influence what diet might be best for you. And good news, you can now get this test done to determine if you are the paleo type or farmer type in your FADS gene variant.
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