A test of the influence of continental axes of orientation on patterns of human gene flow

Ramachandran, Sohini; Rosenberg, Noah A.

doi:10.1002/ajpa.21533

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 76 publications

(111 reference statements)

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“…Genetic differentiation between human populations increases with geographic distance (13,(52)(53)(54), but the degree of differentiation may vary along different geographic axes (54)(55)(56). Within large regions, we computed the geographic axes along which phonemic differentiation was most closely associated with geographic distance between languages; these were consistent with axes predicted using microsatellite data ( Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

A comparison of worldwide phonemic and genetic variation in human populations

Creanza¹,

Ruhlen

Pemberton

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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124

142

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Worldwide patterns of genetic variation are driven by human demographic history. Here, we test whether this demographic history has left similar signatures on phonemes-sound units that distinguish meaning between words in languages-to those it has left on genes. We analyze, jointly and in parallel, phoneme inventories from 2,082 worldwide languages and microsatellite polymorphisms from 246 worldwide populations. On a global scale, both genetic distance and phonemic distance between populations are significantly correlated with geographic distance. Geographically close language pairs share significantly more phonemes than distant language pairs, whether or not the languages are closely related. The regional geographic axes of greatest phonemic differentiation correspond to axes of genetic differentiation, suggesting that there is a relationship between human dispersal and linguistic variation. However, the geographic distribution of phoneme inventory sizes does not follow the predictions of a serial founder effect during human expansion out of Africa. Furthermore, although geographically isolated populations lose genetic diversity via genetic drift, phonemes are not subject to drift in the same way: within a given geographic radius, languages that are relatively isolated exhibit more variance in number of phonemes than languages with many neighbors. This finding suggests that relatively isolated languages are more susceptible to phonemic change than languages with many neighbors. Within a language family, phoneme evolution along genetic, geographic, or cognate-based linguistic trees predicts similar ancestral phoneme states to those predicted from ancient sources. More genetic sampling could further elucidate the relative roles of vertical and horizontal transmission in phoneme evolution. cultural evolution | human migration | languages | population genetics

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

A comparison of worldwide phonemic and genetic variation in human populations

Creanza¹,

Ruhlen

Pemberton

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

124

142

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show abstract

“…Sampling (Table 1), connecting lines are dispersal routes, and arrows are geographical waypoints (Table S4). The eastward expansion (EE) model connects populations primarily along a latitudinal axis (10,12). The beachcomber single dispersal (BSD) model connects populations primarily along a coastal route (7).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 and Table S4). The EE model connects populations by geographical proximity and primarily along a latitudinal axis (10,12), with Cairo as a waypoint into Eurasia. The BSD model follows the migration pattern proposed in ref.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The observed pattern of decreasing genetic (9,10) and cranial (11) diversity at increasing distances from sub-Saharan Africa has been interpreted as evidence for a single dispersal, characterized by a series of founder effects during global expansion. In its simplest form, a single dispersal scenario follows a series of founder events in an eastward expansion (EE) model that conforms to terrestrial routes mostly along a latitudinal axis across Asia (10,12).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia

Reyes-Centeno

Ghirotto

Détroit

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

138

113

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Significance Current consensus indicates that modern humans originated from an ancestral African population between ∼100–200 ka. The ensuing dispersal pattern is controversial, yet has important implications for the demographic history and genetic/phenotypic structure of extant human populations. We test for the first time to our knowledge the spatiotemporal dimensions of competing out-of-Africa dispersal models, analyzing in parallel genomic and craniometric data. Our results support an initial dispersal into Asia by a southern route beginning as early as ∼130 ka and a later dispersal into northern Eurasia by ∼50 ka. Our findings indicate that African Pleistocene population structure may account for observed plesiomorphic genetic/phenotypic patterns in extant Australians and Melanesians. They point to an earlier out-of-Africa dispersal than previously hypothesized.

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“…To compare the genetic data with current human data, we allow all environments to evolve for another 10 000 years after all environments are occupied, without migration between environments. We assume no gene flows between these environments, as previous work [26] assumes that the asymmetry in the genetic distance originates from the asymmetry of gene flows in different directions. Here we investigate another possible origin of the asymmetry of genetic distance, that is, the asymmetry already exists when the population colonized the Americas.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modular knowledge systems accelerate human migration in asymmetric random environments

Wang

Deem

2016

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Migration is a key mechanism for expansion of communities. In spatially heterogeneous environments, rapidly gaining knowledge about the local environment is key to the evolutionary success of a migrating population. For historical human migration, environmental heterogeneity was naturally asymmetric in the north-south (NS) and east -west (EW) directions. We here consider the human migration process in the Americas, modelled as random, asymmetric, modularly correlated environments. Knowledge about the environments determines the fitness of each individual. We present a phase diagram for asymmetry of migration as a function of carrying capacity and fitness threshold. We find that the speed of migration is proportional to the inverse complement of the spatial environmental gradient, and in particular, we find that NS migration rates are lower than EW migration rates when the environmental gradient is higher in the NS direction. Communication of knowledge between individuals can help to spread beneficial knowledge within the population. The speed of migration increases when communication transmits pieces of knowledge that contribute in a modular way to the fitness of individuals. The results for the dependence of migration rate on asymmetry and modularity are consistent with existing archaeological observations. The results for asymmetry of genetic divergence are consistent with patterns of human gene flow.

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A test of the influence of continental axes of orientation on patterns of human gene flow

Cited by 27 publications

References 76 publications

A comparison of worldwide phonemic and genetic variation in human populations

A comparison of worldwide phonemic and genetic variation in human populations

Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia

Modular knowledge systems accelerate human migration in asymmetric random environments

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