Neandertal admixture in Eurasia confirmed by maximum-likelihood analysis of three genomes.

ABSTRACT: Although there has been much interest in estimating histories of divergence and admixture from genomic data, it has proved difficult to distinguish recent admixture from long-term structure in the ancestral population. Thus, recent genome-wide analyses based on summary statistics have sparked controversy about the possibility of interbreeding between Neandertals and modern humans in Eurasia. Here we derive the probability of full mutational configurations in nonrecombining sequence blocks under both admixture and ancestral structure scenarios. Dividing the genome into short blocks gives an efficient way to compute maximum-likelihood estimates of parameters. We apply this likelihood scheme to triplets of human and Neandertal genomes and compare the relative support for a model of admixture

SUBMITTER: Lohse K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3982695 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature