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PMID: 17978179 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Statistical evaluation of alternative models of human evolution.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 104 ·No. 45 ·2007-11-06 ·Pages 17614-9

Fagundes NJ, Ray N, Beaumont M, Neuenschwander S, Salzano FM, Bonatto SL, Excoffier L

Abstract

An appropriate model of recent human evolution is not only important to understand our own history, but it is necessary to disentangle the effects of demography and selection on genome diversity. Although most genetic data support the view that our species originated recently in Africa, it is still unclear if it completely replaced former members of the Homo genus, or if some interbreeding occurred during its range expansion. Several scenarios of modern human evolution have been proposed on the basis of molecular and paleontological data, but their likelihood has never been statistically assessed. Using DNA data from 50 nuclear loci sequenced in African, Asian and Native American samples, we show here by extensive simulations that a simple African replacement model with exponential growth has a higher probability (78%) as compared with alternative multiregional evolution or assimilation scenarios. A Bayesian analysis of the data under this best supported model points to an origin of our species approximately 141 thousand years ago (Kya), an exit out-of-Africa approximately 51 Kya, and a recent colonization of the Americas approximately 10.5 Kya. We also find that the African replacement model explains not only the shallow ancestry of mtDNA or Y-chromosomes but also the occurrence of deep lineages at some autosomal loci, which has been formerly interpreted as a sign of interbreeding with Homo erectus.

MeSH Terms
Africa Animals Asia Biological Evolution Biometry DNA/genetics,isolation & purification Demography Genetic Variation Geography Hominidae/genetics Humans/genetics Models, Biological Molecular Sequence Data
Chemicals
DNA
Authors & Affiliations
7 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Fagundes Nelson J R
Laboratório de Biologia Genômica e Molecular, Faculdade de Biociências, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, 90619-900 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Ray Nicolas
Beaumont Mark
Neuenschwander Samuel
Salzano Francisco M
Bonatto Sandro L
Excoffier Laurent
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0708280104
Published
2007-11-06
Epub
2007-00-31
Pages
17614-9
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC2077041
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
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PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0708280104 PMC Full Text View journal details
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