Human population in the genes

摘要

The history of human population size is important to understanding human evolution. Li and Durbin use complete genome sequences from Chinese, Korean, European and Yoruban (West African) individuals to estimate population sizes between 10,000 and a million years ago. They infer that European and Chinese populations had very similar size histories until about 10,000-20,000 years ago. The European, Chinese and African populations all had an elevated effective population between 60,000 and 250,000 years ago. Genomic analysis suggests that the differentiation of genetically modern humans may have started as early as 100,000-120,000 years ago.