Genetic traces of ancient demography
- PMID: 9465125
- PMCID: PMC19224
- DOI: 10.1073/pnas.95.4.1961
Genetic traces of ancient demography
Abstract
Patterns of gene differences among humans contain information about the demographic history of our species. Haploid loci like mitochondrial DNA and the nonrecombining part of the Y chromosome show a pattern indicating expansion from a population of only several thousand during the late middle or early upper Pleistocene. Nuclear short tandem repeat loci also show evidence of this expansion. Both mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome coalesce within the last several hundred thousand years, and they cannot provide information about the population before their coalescence. Several nuclear loci are informative about our ancestral population size during nearly the whole Pleistocene. They indicate a small effective size, on the order of 10,000 breeding individuals, throughout this time period. This genetic evidence denies any version of the multiregional model of modern human origins. It implies instead that our ancestors were effectively a separate species for most of the Pleistocene.
Figures









Similar articles
-
Genetic perspectives on human origins and differentiation.Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet. 2000;1:361-85. doi: 10.1146/annurev.genom.1.1.361. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet. 2000. PMID: 11701634 Review.
-
Phylogeography of a habitat specialist with high dispersal capability: the Savi's Warbler Locustella luscinioides.PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e38497. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038497. Epub 2012 Jun 11. PLoS One. 2012. PMID: 22701653 Free PMC article.
-
Why hunter-gatherer populations do not show signs of pleistocene demographic expansions.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Sep 14;96(19):10597-602. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.19.10597. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999. PMID: 10485871 Free PMC article.
-
Evolutionary history of the northern leopard frog: reconstruction of phylogeny, phylogeography, and historical changes in population demography from mitochondrial DNA.Evolution. 2004 Jan;58(1):145-59. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2004.tb01581.x. Evolution. 2004. PMID: 15058727
-
Genetic evidence on modern human origins.Hum Biol. 1995 Feb;67(1):1-36. Hum Biol. 1995. PMID: 7721272 Review.
Cited by
-
Anthropogenic hybridization between endangered migratory and commercially harvested stationary whitefish taxa (Coregonus spp.).Evol Appl. 2014 Nov;7(9):1068-83. doi: 10.1111/eva.12166. Epub 2014 Jul 8. Evol Appl. 2014. PMID: 25553068 Free PMC article.
-
Multilocus evidence provides insight into the demographic history and asymmetrical gene flow between Ostrinia furnacalis and Ostrinia nubilalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in the Yili area, Xinjiang, China.Ecol Evol. 2022 Nov 16;12(11):e9504. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9504. eCollection 2022 Nov. Ecol Evol. 2022. PMID: 36407909 Free PMC article.
-
Lower-than-expected linkage disequilibrium between tightly linked markers in humans suggests a role for gene conversion.Am J Hum Genet. 2001 Sep;69(3):582-9. doi: 10.1086/323251. Epub 2001 Jul 25. Am J Hum Genet. 2001. PMID: 11473344 Free PMC article.
-
The use of racial, ethnic, and ancestral categories in human genetics research.Am J Hum Genet. 2005 Oct;77(4):519-32. doi: 10.1086/491747. Epub 2005 Aug 29. Am J Hum Genet. 2005. PMID: 16175499 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Infectious disease: A germy world-food-borne infections in 2009.Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2009 Apr;6(4):197-8. doi: 10.1038/nrgastro.2009.40. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2009. PMID: 19347006 No abstract available.
References
-
- Swisher C C, Rink W J, Anton S C, Schwarcz H P, Curtis G H, Suprijo A, Widiasmora Science. 1996;274:1870–1874. - PubMed
-
- Nei M, Graur D. In: Evolutionary Biology. Hecht M K, Wallace B, Prance G T, editors. Vol. 17. New York: Plenum; 1984. pp. 73–118.
-
- Klein R G. J World Prehist. 1995;9:167–198.
-
- Lahr M M. The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press; 1996.
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources