Microsatellite data show recent demographic expansions in sedentary but not in nomadic human populations in Africa and Eurasia.

ABSTRACT: The transition from hunting and gathering to plant and animal domestication was one of the most important cultural and technological revolutions in human history. According to archeologists and paleoanthropologists, this transition triggered major demographic expansions. However, few genetic studies have found traces of Neolithic expansions in the current repartition of genetic polymorphism, pointing rather toward Paleolithic expansions. Here, we used microsatellite autosomal data to investigate the past demographic history of 87 African and Eurasian human populations with contrasted lifestyles (nomadic hunter-gatherers, semi-nomadic herders and sedentary farmers). Likely due to the combination of a higher mutation rate and the possibility to analyze several loci as independent replicates

SUBMITTER: Aime C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4169540 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature