Support from the relationship of genetic and geographic distance in human populations for a serial founder effect originating in Africa.

ABSTRACT: Equilibrium models of isolation by distance predict an increase in genetic differentiation with geographic distance. Here we find a linear relationship between genetic and geographic distance in a worldwide sample of human populations, with major deviations from the fitted line explicable by admixture or extreme isolation. A close relationship is shown to exist between the correlation of geographic distance and genetic differentiation (as measured by F(ST)) and the geographic pattern of heterozygosity across populations. Considering a worldwide set of geographic locations as possible sources of the human expansion, we find that heterozygosities in the globally distributed populations of the data set are best explained by an expansion originating in Africa and that no geographic origin outs

SUBMITTER: Ramachandran S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1276087 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature