Pattern and Process in Human DNA Sequence Variation

这项研究将对比和测试两种关于人类遗传多样性和进化的相互竞争的观点。一种观点认为，我们的遗传多样性是人类物种从非洲扩展到地球仪其他地方时产生的创始人效应的结果。另一种观点认为，我们的遗传多样性是由当地基因流连接的稳定种群的巨大网络中遗传漂变的结果。为了解决这些对立的观点，该项目将收集新的DNA序列数据，并将在一个新的定量框架中进行分析，该框架是根据随机群体遗传模型建立的。该项目的智力价值在于它使用特定的研究设计来解决有关人类进化和多样性的长期问题。它使用人类进化的替代方案对DNA序列差异的模式进行精确的数值预测。为了测试这些预测，该项目将收集与手头问题直接相关的新数据。该项目对科学界的广泛影响有几个方面。它将产生一个新的DNA序列数据体，并将使这些数据在基因库中公开。它将开发新的统计工具，首席研究员将免费分发给其他研究人员。该项目有一个培训部分，将把研究生的才能与本科生的才能结合起来。这两个级别的学生将帮助进行研究，并参与分析和报告。首席研究员将利用这项研究的结果，根据现代基因组学的多样性和种族的主题为外行读者写一篇文章。本文将向公众解释人类进化如何提供一个新的非种族框架来理解人类的差异和相似性。

This research will contrast and test two competing views about human genetic diversity and evolution. One view sees our genetic diversity as the outcome of founder effects that occurred as the human species expanded from Africa and filled the rest of the globe. The other view sees our genetic diversity as the outcome of genetic drift in a vast network of stable populations connected by local gene flow. To resolve these opposing views, this project will collect new DNA sequence data, and it will conduct analyses in a novel quantitative framework that is built from stochastic population genetic models. The intellectual merit of this project is that it uses a specific research design to resolve long-standing questions about human evolution and diversity. It uses the alternative scenarios for human evolution to make precise numerical predictions about patterns of DNA sequence differences. To test these predictions, the project will collect new data that are directly relevant to the questions at hand. The project's broader impact on the scientific community has several dimensions. It will produce a new body of DNA sequence data, and it will make these data publicly available in GenBank. It will develop new statistical tools that the principal investigator will distribute to other researchers free of charge. The project has a training component that will fuse the talents of graduate students with those of undergraduates. Students at both levels will help conduct the research and participate in analyses and reports. The principal investigator will use the results of this research to write an article for lay audiences on the topic of diversity and race in light of modern genomics. This article will explain to the lay public how human evolution provides a new nonracial framework to understand human differences and likeness.