Dissertation Research: The Application of Human Alu Diversity to A Model of Sudden Population Expansion

摘要 P.I. Mark Stoneking/Steve Sherry SBR-9318826 在过去的十年中，分子技术已被用于人类遗传多样性的调查。 这些研究的目的是澄清人类的进化过程。 特别是艾伦·威尔逊实验室的一项研究，开启了一个关于系统发育树的信息含量、它们的基本假设及其在可靠地推断过去进化事件中的潜在作用的研究时期。 第二个理论推动力集中在古代人口增长对一种分子数据的影响上：个体之间成对突变差异的分布（称为错配分布）。人类的不匹配分布应该是遥远过去人口膨胀和分裂的记录。 不同种群的扩张时间被确定为30，000年至180，000年前，而显著的扩张发生在旧石器时代晚期（40，000年至125，000年前）。 从这类研究中出现的最新假设围绕着旧石器时代中期逐渐从非洲迁移出来，随后在旧石器时代晚期出现了人口快速增长的区域性事件，尽管目前所有的推断都是基于单一基因位点的变异。 该项目将通过分析Alu重复序列来满足对群体多样性的多个独立测量的理论需求。 它还将进一步提高一名优秀青年科学家的技术能力。 [*] P\anthro\jfried\9318826.abs ! ! ! D H H ( Times New Roman 符号Arial& D D D " H Tt Est E = 乔纳森·弗里德兰德

ABSTRACT P.I. Mark Stoneking/Steve Sherry SBR- 9318826 The last decade has seen the adoption of molecular technology in surveys of human genetic diversity. The purpose of these studies has been a clarification of the human evolutionary process. One study in particular, from Alan Wilson's lab, initiated a vigorous period of research on the information contint of phylogenetic trees, their underlying assumptions and their potential role in reliably inferring past evolutionary events. A second theoretical impetus centers on the effecto of ancient population growth on a type of molecular data: the distribution of pairwise mutational differences between individuals (called the mismatch distribution). Human mismatch distributions should preserva record of popuations expansions and spearations in the remote past. Expansion times have been identified for different populations from 30,000 to 180,000 years ago, and that significant expansion occurred during thelate middle and upper Paleolithic (40,000 to 125,000 years ago). The latest hypothesis to emerge from these sorts of studies center around a gradual Middle Paleolithic migration out of Africa followed by later regional episodes of rapid population growth during the Upper Paleolithic, although all inference is currently based on variation at a single genetic locus. This project will satisfy the theoretical needs for multiple, independent measures of population diversity, by analyzing Alu repeats. It will also further the technical capabilities of an excellent young scientist. *** P\anthro\jfried\9318826.abs ! ! ! D H H ( Times New Roman Symbol & Arial D D D " h Tt Est E = Jonathan Friedlaender Jonathan Friedlaender