Handley Lori J Lawson, Manica Andrea, Goudet Jérôme, Balloux François
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK.
Trends Genet. 2007 Sep;23(9):432-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2007.07.002. Epub 2007 Jul 25.
Global human genetic variation is greatly influenced by geography, with genetic differentiation between populations increasing with geographic distance and within-population diversity decreasing with distance from Africa. In fact, these 'clines' can explain most of the variation in human populations. Despite this, population genetics inferences often rely on models that do not take geography into account, which could result in misleading conclusions when working at global geographic scales. Geographically explicit approaches have great potential for the study of human population genetics. Here, we discuss the most promising avenues of research in the context of human settlement history and the detection of genomic elements under natural selection. We also review recent technical advances and address the challenges of integrating geography and genetics.
全球人类遗传变异受到地理因素的极大影响，人群之间的遗传分化随地理距离增加，而种群内部多样性则随与非洲距离的增加而减少。事实上，这些“渐变群”可以解释人类群体中的大部分变异。尽管如此，群体遗传学推断通常依赖于未考虑地理因素的模型，这在全球地理尺度上进行研究时可能导致误导性结论。地理明确的方法在人类群体遗传学研究中具有巨大潜力。在这里，我们在人类定居历史和自然选择下基因组元件检测的背景下讨论最有前景的研究途径。我们还回顾了最近的技术进展，并探讨了整合地理与遗传学的挑战。
