Intergenic DNA sequences from the human X chromosome reveal high rates of global gene flow.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite intensive efforts devoted to collecting human polymorphism data, little is known about the role of gene flow in the ancestry of human populations. This is partly because most analyses have applied one of two simple models of population structure, the island model or the splitting model, which make unrealistic biological assumptions.

Results

Here, we analyze 98-kb of DNA sequence from 20 independently evolving intergenic regions on the X chromosome in a sample of 90 humans from six globally diverse populations. We employ an isolation-with-migration (IM) model, which assumes that populations split and subsequently exchange migrants, to independently estimate effective population sizes and migration rates. While the maximum effective size of modern humans is

SUBMITTER: Cox MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2620354 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature