Global genetic positioning: Evidence for early human population centers in coastal habitats
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Edited by Henry C. Harpending, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, and approved November 30, 2005 (received for review September 13, 2005)
Abstract
For an alternative perspective on relationships among human populations, we combined genetic and geographic information, using allele frequency gradients to place populations and individuals on the globe. Reanalyzing published data on 51 worldwide populations [Rosenberg, N. A., Pritchard, J. K., Weber, J. L., Cann, H. M., Kidd, K. K., Zhivitovsky, L. A. & Feldman, M. W. (2002) Science 298, 2381–2385] reveals five geographic clusters lying in plausible sites either of early agricultural innovation or on ancient migration routes. Also, the inferred sites show significant association with coastlines, suggesting that most early humans lived near large bodies of water. Our approach is flexible, and developments should prove useful both for exploring historical demography and for the identification of likely origin for unknown forensic samples.
Footnotes
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↵ † To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: w.amos{at}zoo.cam.ac.uk.
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↵ * W.A. and A.M. contributed equally to this work.
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Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.
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This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
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Abbreviation: gSD, geographic standard distance.
- Copyright © 2006, The National Academy of Sciences
