Selection and reduced population size cannot explain higher amounts of Neandertal ancestry in East Asian than in European human populations

Bernard Y Kim; Kirk E Lohmueller

doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.12.029

Selection and reduced population size cannot explain higher amounts of Neandertal ancestry in East Asian than in European human populations

Am J Hum Genet. 2015 Mar 5;96(3):454-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.12.029. Epub 2015 Feb 12.

Authors

Bernard Y Kim¹, Kirk E Lohmueller²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. Electronic address: klohmueller@ucla.edu.

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that the greater proportion of Neandertal ancestry in East Asians than in Europeans is due to the fact that purifying selection is less effective at removing weakly deleterious Neandertal alleles from East Asian populations. Using simulations of a broad range of models of selection and demography, we have shown that this hypothesis cannot account for the higher proportion of Neandertal ancestry in East Asians than in Europeans. Instead, more complex demographic scenarios, most likely involving multiple pulses of Neandertal admixture, are required to explain the data.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Alleles
Animals
Asian People / genetics*
Genetics, Population
Genome
Humans
Neanderthals / genetics*
Population Density*
White People / genetics*