Complex interplay between neutral and adaptive evolution shaped differential genomic background and disease susceptibility along the Italian peninsula.

ABSTRACT: The Italian peninsula has long represented a natural hub for human migrations across the Mediterranean area, being involved in several prehistoric and historical population movements. Coupled with a patchy environmental landscape entailing different ecological/cultural selective pressures, this might have produced peculiar patterns of population structure and local adaptations responsible for heterogeneous genomic background of present-day Italians. To disentangle this complex scenario, genome-wide data from 780 Italian individuals were generated and set into the context of European/Mediterranean genomic diversity by comparison with genotypes from 50 populations. To maximize possibility of pinpointing functional genomic regions that have played adaptive roles during Italian natural history

SUBMITTER: Sazzini M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5007512 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature