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Updated: Jun 13, 2026
15:28
Primer Extension Capture: Targeted Sequence Retrieval from Heavily Degraded DNA Sources
Published on: September 3, 2009
Formulating a historical and demographic model of recent human evolution based on resequencing data from noncoding
Guillaume Laval1, Etienne Patin, Luis B Barreiro
1Human Evolutionary Genetics, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
Plos One
|April 28, 2010
Summary
Modern humans originated from a single dispersal out of Africa ~60,000 years ago, with a significant population size reduction. European and East Asian ancestors diverged much later, suggesting a prolonged Eurasian population maturation phase.
Area of Science:
- Population genetics
- Human evolution
- Genomics
Background:
- Reconstructing human history relies on estimating demographic parameters of modern populations.
- Understanding neutral genetic diversity aids in identifying genomic regions under natural selection.
Observation:
- Resequenced 20 independent noncoding autosomal regions across ~6 Mb in 213 individuals from diverse continental populations.
- Employed a statistical framework combining model evaluation and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) for co-estimating demographic parameters.
Findings:
- Results support a single major human dispersal out of Africa ~60,000 years ago.
- This event caused a ~5-fold reduction in effective population size.
- Ancestors of Europeans and East Asians diverged ~22,500 years ago, indicating a late Eurasian diversification.
Implications:
- The findings suggest a prolonged maturation period for the ancestral Eurasian population post-African exodus.
- This research refines models of recent human evolution and demographic history.
- Accurate demographic parameter estimation is crucial for identifying natural selection in the human genome.
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