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Evidence for archaic adaptive introgression in humans.
Fernando Racimo1, Sriram Sankararaman2, Rasmus Nielsen3
1Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 97420, USA.
Nature Reviews. Genetics
|May 13, 2015
Summary
Archaic humans passed beneficial genetic variants to modern humans, aiding adaptation and survival through a process called adaptive introgression. Researchers are developing methods to identify these introgressed fragments and confirm positive selection.
Area of Science:
- Human evolutionary genetics
- Population genetics
- Paleogenomics
Background:
- Accumulating modern and ancient DNA data reveal beneficial variants from archaic humans.
- These variants may have accelerated adaptation and improved survival in new environments.
- This process is known as archaic adaptive introgression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide an overview of statistical methods for identifying archaic introgressed fragments in modern human genomes.
- To review methods for determining positive selection on these fragments.
- To discuss examples, challenges, and recommendations for inferring selection on introgressed regions.
Main Methods:
- Statistical methods for identifying archaic introgressed fragments.
- Methods to detect positive selection acting on introgressed regions.
- Review of genomic studies reporting archaic adaptive introgression.
Main Results:
- Genomic regions showing strong evidence for archaic adaptive introgression have been identified.
- Examples of adaptive introgression, grouped by selection pressure, are presented.
- The level of supporting evidence for each example is considered.
Conclusions:
- Archaic adaptive introgression is a significant factor in human evolution.
- Statistical methods are crucial for identifying and validating these introgressed regions.
- Further research is needed to address challenges in inferring selection on introgressed DNA.
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