Analysis of Admixture and Range Expansion in Humans and Extinct Hominims

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究旨在开发数学和统计方法，用于分析从几个密切相关的人群中取样的个体的DNA序列数据。拟议的研究的一部分将是开发方法，允许推断过去和现在的迁移和混合模式。这些方法将应用于来自几个人类群体和灭绝的人类亲属的个体的DNA序列，包括尼安德特人和丹尼索瓦人（尼安德特人的远亲）。这项拟议中的研究旨在提供更好的方法来了解人类及其近亲的历史。一个目标是描述人类、尼安德特人、丹尼索瓦人和其他灭绝的人类亲属之间的混合物。第二个目标将是确定人类基因组中的基因，这些基因自尼安德特人和丹尼索瓦人分离以来，但在现代人类种群分化之前，在自然选择的影响下最近频率增加。虽然这些方法的动机是最近可用的基因组从尼安德特人和丹尼索瓦人，他们将适用于其他群体的密切相关的物种，因为更多的基因组数据变得可用。拟议研究的第二部分将是开发方法，利用单一物种的DNA序列数据来检测最近地理范围扩大到空栖息地或已经包含居民混合物种的栖息地的证据。其目标是确定是否发生了范围扩张，其地理起源在哪里，并推断扩张的细节，包括处于领先地位的创始人的有效数量。这些方法将被应用到几个人口的数据，以了解人口流动的最近历史。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research is intended to develop mathematical and statistical methods for analyzing DNA sequence data from individuals sampled from several closely related populations. One part of the proposed research will be to develop methods that allow inference of past and present patterns of migration and admixture. The methods will be applied to DNA sequences from individuals from several human populations and from extinct human relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans (a distant relative of Neanderthals). The proposed research is intended to provide improved ways of understanding the history of humans and their close relatives. One goal will be to characterize the admixture that occurred between humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other extinct human relatives. A second goal will be to identify genes in the human genome that recently increased in frequency under the effect of natural selection since the separation from Neanderthals and Denisovans but before the divergence of modern human populations. Although these methods are motivated by the recently available genomes from Neanderthals and Denisovans, they will be applicable to other groups of closely related species as more genomic data becomes available. The second part of the proposed research will be to develop methods for using DNA sequence data from a single species to detect evidence of a recent expansion in geographic range either into an empty habitat or a habitat already containing a resident admixing species. The goal will be to determine whether a range expansion has taken place, where its geographic origin was, and to infer details of the expansion, including the effective number of founders at the leading edge. These methods will be applied to data from several human populations in order to understand the recent history of population movement.