On some of the drier atolls in the Marshalls and the Gilberts, the pandanus tree is a major subsistence crop.
Yams, cassava (manioc), oil palm produce, rice, and corn (maize) are the major subsistence crops, while rubber, timber, and palm oil and kernels are cash crops.
This latitudinal span shows diversity in subsistence modes across time and space, ranging from Andean agro-pastoralists in the north to Patagonian hunter-gatherers in the south.
To this end, published frequency data on the most relevant genetic variants of NAT2 were collected from 128 population samples (14,679 individuals) representing different subsistence modes and dietary habits, allowing a thorough analysis at both a worldwide and continent scale.
The vast geographic distance between populations with the same subsistence modes (especially H-G, Supplementary Figure S3) makes it unlikely that these results are due to spatial clustering and preferential gene flow.
By systematically retrieving data from the literature, we collected frequency data for the most relevant genetic variants of NAT2 in 128 population samples representing different subsistence modes and dietary habits.
Contrary to the results of Luca et al. [8], we did not find any significant differences in the frequencies of the NAT2*5 and NAT2*14 haplotype series across subsistence modes (P = 0.053 and P = 0.341, respectively).
Pairwise Wilcoxon rank sum tests of differences in predicted frequency of NAT2 slow acetylation among subsistence modes.
However, the possibility exists that differences in xenobiotic environments interacting with NAT2 could also result from differential dietary habits linked to subsistence modes.
Apparently, this region has a particularly high diversity of ethnicities, languages, and subsistence modes, and a complex correspondence with uniparental genetic variation.
