NEW ANALYSIS OF HUMAN GENETIC HISTORY REVEALS FEMALE DOMINANCE
Female populations
have been larger than male populations throughout human history, according to
research published today in the open access journal Investigative
Genetics. The research used a new technique to obtain
higher quality paternal genetic information to analyze the demographic history
of males and females in worldwide populations.
The study compared the
paternally-inherited Y chromosome (NRY) with maternally inherited mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA) of 623 males from 51 populations. The analysis showed that female
populations were larger before the out-of-Africa migration and remained so
throughout almost all subsequent migrations. The main drivers of this trend are
likely to be processes such as polygyny, where one male mates with many
females, and the fact that in most societies, women tend to move to live with
their husbands. This has resulted in females making a greater genetic
contribution to the global population than males.
Previous research on
genetic history has used different techniques to analyze NRY and mtDNA, which
has led to an ascertainment bias in the results. In this study, researchers
from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology developed a
high-resolution Y chromosome sequencing assay that allowed them to get paternal
and maternal histories of similar quality and resolution, so they could make a
direct comparison. The results confirmed previous findings that when comparing
human populations on a global scale, there are greater genetic differences in
paternal NRY than in mtDNA. However, these differences are not as large as
previously thought and the authors were surprised to see substantial variation
in relative amounts of NRY vs. mtDNA differentiation at the regional level.
The authors argue that
using this new technique, greater analysis can be undertaken at a regional
level to create a clearer picture of the paternal and maternal influences on
specific populations. In the African populations they studied, they saw lower
paternal genetic diversity, which may be a direct result of the Bantu expansion
into eastern and southern Africa beginning about three thousand years ago. In
samples taken from the Americas, initial results suggest higher maternal
genetic diversity, indicating that there were fewer males than females among
the original colonizers.
Dr. Mark Stoneking,
Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute, an author on the
paper, said: "Our new sequencing technique removes previous biases, giving
us a richer source of information about our genetic history. It allows us to
take a closer look at the regional differences in populations, providing
insights into the impact of sex-biased processes on human genetic
variation."
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