Differentiating mechanism from outcome for ancestry-assortative mating in admixed human populations.

ABSTRACT: Population genetic theory, and the empirical methods built upon it, often assumes that individuals pair randomly for reproduction. However, natural populations frequently violate this assumption, which may potentially confound genome-wide association studies, selection scans, and demographic inference. Within several recently admixed human populations, empirical genetic studies have reported a correlation in global ancestry proportion between spouses, referred to as ancestry-assortative mating. Here, we use forward genomic simulations to link correlations in global ancestry proportion between mates to the underlying mechanistic mate choice process. We consider the impacts of 2 types of mate choice model, using either ancestry-based preferences or social groups as the basis for mate pairing

SUBMITTER: Massey DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12005266 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature