Gene flow across linguistic boundaries in Native North American populations

Hunley, Keith; Long, Jeffrey C.

doi:10.1073/pnas.0409301102

Cited by 100 publications

(63 citation statements)

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“…For example, we often want to ascertain if geographic isolation (usually measured in terms of pairwise geographic distances but best described by a connectivity measure; see Moilanen and Nieminen 2002 for a review) and/or linguistic affinity have influenced the genetic structure of a species (Sokal et al 1992;Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman 2003;Geffen et al 2004;Hunley and Long 2005). Given that F ST -values are bounded between 0 and 1, we could use the familiar logistic regression model…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the Environmental Factors That Determine the Genetic Structure of Populations

2006

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The study of population genetic structure is a fundamental problem in population biology because it helps us obtain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary process. One of the issues most assiduously studied in this context is the assessment of the relative importance of environmental factors (geographic distance, language, temperature, altitude, etc.) on the genetic structure of populations. The most widely used method to address this question is the multivariate Mantel test, a nonparametric method that calculates a correlation coefficient between a dependent matrix of pairwise population genetic distances and one or more independent matrices of environmental differences. Here we present a hierarchical Bayesian method that estimates F ST values for each local population and relates them to environmental factors using a generalized linear model. The method is demonstrated by applying it to two data sets, a data set for a population of the argan tree and a human data set comprising 51 populations distributed worldwide. We also carry out a simulation study to investigate the performance of the method and find that it can correctly identify the factors that play a role in the structuring of genetic diversity under a wide range of scenarios.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the Environmental Factors That Determine the Genetic Structure of Populations

2006

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“…Humans can also assort by language; however, studies of the interactions between language and genetic population structure show that the resulting dynamics can differ by population. For example, in some geographic regions, language boundaries do not seem to act as barriers to gene flow (78)(79)(80) whereas, in other places, assorting with respect to language seems to have had a large effect, and genetic similarity is more closely associated with language than with geographic distance (80)(81)(82)(83). Assortative mating has had a measurable effect on human genomic architecture, and genetic and phenotypic correlations between partners are substantial (84).…”

Section: Nonrandom Assortment and Biased Transmissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Creanza

Kolodny

Feldman

2017

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

350

203

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Human cultural traits-behaviors, ideas, and technologies that can be learned from other individuals-can exhibit complex patterns of transmission and evolution, and researchers have developed theoretical models, both verbal and mathematical, to facilitate our understanding of these patterns. Many of the first quantitative models of cultural evolution were modified from existing concepts in theoretical population genetics because cultural evolution has many parallels with, as well as clear differences from, genetic evolution. Furthermore, cultural and genetic evolution can interact with one another and influence both transmission and selection. This interaction requires theoretical treatments of gene-culture coevolution and dual inheritance, in addition to purely cultural evolution. In addition, cultural evolutionary theory is a natural component of studies in demography, human ecology, and many other disciplines. Here, we review the core concepts in cultural evolutionary theory as they pertain to the extension of biology through culture, focusing on cultural evolutionary applications in population genetics, ecology, and demography. For each of these disciplines, we review the theoretical literature and highlight relevant empirical studies. We also discuss the societal implications of the study of cultural evolution and of the interactions of humans with one another and with their environment. cultural evolution | mathematical models | gene-culture coevolution | niche construction | demography H uman culture encompasses ideas, behaviors, and artifacts that can be learned and transmitted between individuals and can change over time (1). This process of transmission and change is reminiscent of Darwin's principle of descent with modification through natural selection, and Darwin himself drew this explicit link in the case of languages: "The formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel" (2, 3). Theory underpins most scientific endeavors, and, in the 1970s, researchers began to lay the groundwork for cultural evolutionary theory, building on the neo-Darwinian synthesis of genetics and evolution by using verbal, diagrammatic, and mathematical models (4-8). These models are, by necessity, approximations of reality (9), but because they require researchers to specify their assumptions and extract the most important features from complex processes, they have proven exceedingly useful in advancing the study of cultural evolution (10). Here, we review the field of cultural evolutionary theory as it pertains to the extension of biology through culture. We focus on human culture because the bulk of cultural evolutionary models are human-centric and certain processes such as cumulative culture seem to be unique to humans. However, numerous nonhuman species also exhibit cultural transmission, and we consider the areas of overlap between models of human and animal culture in Discussion.The study of cultural evolution is im...

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“…Previous work focused mostly on mtDNA variation in northern Native American populations (2,5,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Work using the Y chromosome to explore these issues, however, used relatively low-resolution haplogroup and haplotype data or did not test the correlation between Y-chromosomal diversity and language use (Athapaskan vs. Eskimoan) in a localized geographic space (16,17).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Under this model, Amerind is the largest, most varied, and oldest language family in the Americas. However, some have questioned the use and/or appropriateness of this linguistic classification (4,5). Despite this controversy, the designation of the Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut language families is well-established, although the inclusion of Haida with Athapaskan, Eyak, and Tlingit (forming the Na-Dene family) has been reconsidered (6,7).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been argued based on blood group markers and cranial trait data that some Inuit are more closely related to non-Inuit groups and that certain Athapaskan-speaking populations have greater genetic affinity with non-Athapaskan groups (8,9). Complete correlations between genetics and linguistic classifications are lacking from mtDNA data (5). Even the dental traits used to justify a threemigration hypothesis did not group all Na-Dene speakers into a single category separate from the other two (Amerind and Eskimo-Aleut) groups and furthermore, suggested the inclusion of Aleuts with Athapaskan speakers from northwestern America (3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Y-chromosome analysis reveals genetic divergence and new founding native lineages in Athapaskan- and Eskimoan-speaking populations

Dulik

Owings²,

Gaieski³

et al. 2012

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

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For decades, the peopling of the Americas has been explored through the analysis of uniparentally inherited genetic systems in Native American populations and the comparison of these genetic data with current linguistic groupings. In northern North America, two language families predominate: Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene. Although the genetic evidence from nuclear and mtDNA loci suggest that speakers of these language families share a distinct biological origin, this model has not been examined using data from paternally inherited Y chromosomes. To test this hypothesis and elucidate the migration histories of Eskimoan- and Athapaskan-speaking populations, we analyzed Y-chromosomal data from Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, and Tłįchǫ populations living in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Over 100 biallelic markers and 19 chromosome short tandem repeats (STRs) were genotyped to produce a high-resolution dataset of Y chromosomes from these groups. Among these markers is an SNP discovered in the Inuvialuit that differentiates them from other Aboriginal and Native American populations. The data suggest that Canadian Eskimoan- and Athapaskan-speaking populations are genetically distinct from one another and that the formation of these groups was the result of two population expansions that occurred after the initial movement of people into the Americas. In addition, the population history of Athapaskan speakers is complex, with the Tłįchǫ being distinct from other Athapaskan groups. The high-resolution biallelic data also make clear that Y-chromosomal diversity among the first Native Americans was greater than previously recognized.

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Gene flow across linguistic boundaries in Native North American populations

Cited by 100 publications

References 42 publications

Identifying the Environmental Factors That Determine the Genetic Structure of Populations

Identifying the Environmental Factors That Determine the Genetic Structure of Populations

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Y-chromosome analysis reveals genetic divergence and new founding native lineages in Athapaskan- and Eskimoan-speaking populations

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