A working model of the deep relationships of diverse modern human genetic lineages outside of Africa.

Mol Biol Evol
Authors
Abstract

A major topic of interest in human prehistory is how the large-scale genetic structure of modern populations outside of Africa was established. Demographic models have been developed that capture the relationships among small numbers of populations or within particular geographical regions, but constructing a phylogenetic tree with gene flow events for a wide diversity of non-Africans remains a difficult problem. Here, we report a model that provides a good statistical fit to allele-frequency correlation patterns among East Asians, Australasians, Native Americans, and ancient western and northern Eurasians, together with archaic human groups. The model features a primary eastern/western bifurcation dating to at least 45,000 years ago, with Australasians nested inside the eastern clade, and a parsimonious set of admixture events. While our results still represent a simplified picture, they provide a useful summary of deep Eurasian population history that can serve as a null model for future studies and a baseline for further discoveries.

Year of Publication
2017
Journal
Mol Biol Evol
Date Published
2017 Jan 10
ISSN
1537-1719
DOI
10.1093/molbev/msw293
PubMed ID
28074030
Links
Grant list
R01 GM100233 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States