Negritos Preserved Smell Genes for Rainforest Foraging
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- Negrito hunter-gatherers among Malaysia's Orang Asli carried significantly fewer damaging mutations in their olfactory receptor genes than other populations worldwide and retained more ancestral gene versions — a finding the team attributes to evolutionary pressure to maintain smell for foraging and hunting.
- Negritos were also more likely to carry gene variants associated with detecting earthy, fruity, and herbal scents typical of rainforest environments and edible plants.
- Jakun people, a Proto-Malay agriculturalist subgroup, were more likely to carry a distinct version of the OR12D3 gene, which previous studies linked to insulin metabolism — a variant the team suspects may be tied to regulating glucose on their carbohydrate-rich agricultural diet.
- Deng's team at Fudan University analyzed genes from 50 Orang Asli individuals across all three groups (Negritos, Senoi rotational farmers, and Proto-Malay agriculturalists), comparing them with global genomic data.
- Humans lost more than 60% of functional olfactory receptor genes since diverging from primates, yet the study argues olfaction played a larger evolutionary role than commonly assumed, shaped by the interplay of genetics, environment, and behavior.
- Lian Deng, the study's corresponding author, said the findings are the first to demonstrate gene-culture coevolution in human smell at a genetic level, showing how culture, environment, and biology evolved together.
Why it matters: This challenges the widespread assumption that human olfaction is a diminished sense that deteriorated as we evolved — showing instead that olfactory gene diversity tracks directly with subsistence strategy. For evolutionary genetics, the study is the first to demonstrate gene-culture coevolution in human smell at a genetic level, grounded in three distinct Orang Asli populations and the 50-person sample at its core.
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