How environmentally-induced adaptation and migration events have shaped the DNA of worldwide human populations

由于大范围的过程，人类的遗传多样性在不同的种群之间存在差异。这位博士将调查世界范围内人类群体的遗传结构以及混合和适应的信号，并将这些发现与环境因素联系起来，使用未发表的DNA数据，这些数据来自2000个人，例如代表整个非洲200个种族的样本。我将确定地理、地形、历史和社会因素(如共同的语言和习俗)如何塑造种群之间的遗传联系。然后，我将应用最先进的统计方法，提供关于哪些群体以及何时混杂的详细推断，并将其与可能引发人民大规模运动的环境和政治变化的记录进行比较(例如，班图农牧民在整个撒哈拉以南非洲的扩张)。此外，我将确定基因组中显示选择证据的区域，以及携带这些选择信号的特定人群，以便了解影响世界不同地区人类适应的共同环境压力(例如传染病、饮食、气候、社会因素)。最后，我将利用我们史无前例的非洲资源，以新的方式阐明关于第一批移民走出非洲的人数和路线的长期争议。

Human genetic diversity varies between populations due to a large range of processes. This PhD will investigate the genetic structure and signals of admixture and adaptation in worldwide human populations and relate these findings to environmental factors, using unpublished DNA data from >2000 individuals that e.g. represent >200 ethnicities sampled across Africa. I will determine how genetic relatedness among populations is shaped by geographical, topographical, historical, and social factors, such as shared linguistics and customs. I will then apply state-of-the-art statistical methods to provide detailed inference of which groups have intermixed and when, which I will compare to records of environmental and political change that may have instigated the large-scale movement of peoples (e.g. the expansion of the Bantu agropastorialists throughout sub-Saharan Africa). Furthermore, I will identify regions of the genome that show evidence of selection, and the specific populations that carry these selection signals in order to understand the common environmental pressures (e.g. infectious disease, diet, climate, social factors) that have impacted human adaptation in different parts of the world. Finally, I will use our unprecedented African resource to shed new light on the longstanding controversy regarding the number and routes of initial waves of migration out of Africa.