PNAS: Where you live doesn't have as much impact as you think

Genetic research over the past 20 years has extensively shown that most genetic differences in human populations around the world are encountered
at the individual rather than at the population level.
Two random people from the same population do differ genetically more
than the average difference between two different people.

Is the same true in terms of lifestyle and culture?

In a recently published PNAS article, researchers from the Universities of Tartu, Turin, Trieste and Padua studied this question, using dietary choices as a measure and examining the preferences
of 6 populations along the Silk Roads throughout Central Asia throughout history.

Professor Luca Pagani, senior author of the study, said: "We found that preferences for certain foods can reflect preferences for others, in other words, preferences for food can be combined into a discrete 'food characteristic'
.
"

Strikingly, these signatures or documents are not typical of
a particular village or country.
Thus, the food characteristics identified are linked to other characteristics of the individual being questioned, such as age, biological sex, and other cultural choices
.
However, certain foods that are only available in specific countries are some exceptions
.
Among them, some typical regional delicacies stand out, such as the Georgian "Suguni" and "Kurut" brine cheeses, and the dried yogurt balls
of the Central Asian nomads.

Only 20 percent of the people researchers could associate dietary information with country of origin is large compared to genetic information (1 percent) but still insufficient to explain the observed patterns, despite the thousands of kilometers
between the individuals surveyed.

Since differences in genetic makeup and food preferences between countries can translate into distances between "genes" and "foods," these differences are plotted on geographic maps to be compared
with actual geographic distances between sampling sites.
Emerging maps show that cultural and geographic comparability is only slightly higher than genetic comparability for the populations being analyzed (Figure 1), which is consistent with
other results.

"No matter where you live or where you were born, it turns out that your choices (at least in terms of food consumption) depend more on your gender, age and other cultural characteristics," concludes
Dr.
Serena Anelli, lead author of the study.