Double or nothing: Ancient duplications in the amylase locus drove human adaptation

Salivary and pancreatic amylase are encoded by AMY1 and AMY2, respectively, which are located within a single genomic locus that has undergone substantial structural variation, resulting in varying gene copy numbers across species. Using optical genome mapping and long-read sequencing, Yilmaz, Karageorgiou, Kim, et al. achieved nucleotide-level resolution of this locus across different human populations, offering new insights into how copy number variation contributes to human adaptation.