Abstract
The neutral theory has been used as a null model for interpreting nature and produced the Recent Out of Africa model of anatomically modern humans. Recent studies, however, have established that genetic diversities are mostly at maximum saturation levels maintained by selection, therefore challenging the explanatory power of the neutral theory and rendering the present molecular model of human origins untenable. Using improved methods and public data, we have revisited human evolution and found sharing of genetic variations among racial groups to be largely a result of parallel mutations rather than recent common ancestry and admixture as commonly assumed. We derived an age of 1.86-1.92 million years for the first split in modern human populations based on autosomal diversity data. We found evidence of modern Y and mtDNA originating in East Asia and dispersing via hybridization with archaic humans. Analyses of autosomes, Y and mtDNA all suggest that Denisovan and Neanderthal were archaic Africans with Eurasian admixtures and ancestors of South Asia Negritos and Aboriginal Australians. Verifying our model, we found more ancestry of Southern Chinese from Hunan in Africans relative to other East Asian groups examined. These results suggest multiregional evolution of autosomes and replacements of archaic Y and mtDNA by modern ones originating in East Asia, thereby leading to a coherent account of modern human origins.
Footnotes
Dejian Yuan, yuandejian{at}163.com, Xiaoyun Lei, leixiaoyun{at}sklmg.edu.cn, Yuanyuan Gui, guiyuanyuan{at}sklmg.edu.cn, Mingrui Wang, wangmingrui{at}sklmg.edu.cn, Ye Zhang, zhangye{at}sklmg.edu.cn, Zuobin Zhu, zhuzuobin2010{at}163.com, Dapeng Wang, wangdp123{at}gmail.com, Jun Yu, junyu{at}big.ac.cn
Added new Figure 1 to show that sharing of genetic variations among racial groups is due to parallel mutations rather than common ancestry and admixture. Added coauthors who contributed new data. Previous Figure 4 has been revised and is now Figure 5. Update reference list and added new reference to support the notion that observed variants in slow evolving genes are more neutral and more suitable for phylogenetic inferences.
Abbreviations
- AMH
- anatomically modern humans
- MGD
- maximum genetic diversity
- SNP
- single nucleotide polymorphisms
- AUA
- Aboriginal Australian
- PGD
- pairwise genetic distance
- PCA
- principal component analysis
- Myr
- million years
- AFR
- African
- ASN
- East Asian
- EUR
- European
- SAS
- South Asian
- ESN
- Esen in Nigeria
- GBR
- British in England and Scotland
- CHS
- Southern Han Chinese
- CHB
- Han Chinese in Beijing
- JPT
- Japanese in Tokyo
- BEB
- Bengali from Bangladesh
- YRI
- Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria
- CEU
- Utah Residents with Northern and Western European Ancestry
- LWK
- Luhya in Webuye, Kenya