Two new studies found that ancient human ancestors carried a surprising diversity of genes for amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch. By Carl Zimmer As soon as you put starch in your mouth — ...

Amylase is a general term for enzymes that hydrolyze starch and glycogen with the specificity of enzyme preparation. Its main mechanism of action is to hydrolyze starch into maltose, glucose, dextrin, ...

Scientists report that blood glucose levels following starch ingestion are influenced by genetically-determined differences in the oral enzyme salivary amylase. Specifically, higher salivary amylase ...

New research offers insight into the evolutionary history of amylase genes, which are key to our ability to eat and digest starchy food. A study found that human ancestors started carrying multiple ...

Historically, the similarity between AMY1 copies has made this stretch of the genome difficult to map with traditional short-read sequencing techniques like sequencing by synthesis, which map out ...