Biology subjects

Pontus Skoglund

Publications and source records attributed to Pontus Skoglund.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2016

No evidence for unknown archaic ancestry in South Asia

Genomic studies have documented a contribution of archaic Neanderthals and Denisovans to non-Africans1,2. Recently Mondal et al.3 published a major dataset--the largest whole genome sequencing study of diverse South Asians to date--including 60 mainland groups and 10 indigenous Andamanese. They reported analyses claiming that nearly all South Asians harbor ancestry from an unknown archaic human population that is neither Neanderthal nor Denisovan. However, the statistics cited in support of this conclusion do not replicate in other data sets, and in fact contradict the conclusion.\n\nThe main evidence cited by Mondal et al. is statistics suggesting that indigenous Andamanese and mainland Indian groups share fewer alleles with sub-Saharan Africans than they do with Europeans and East Asians; such statistics have previously been reported in Australasians, for whom they represent key evide ...

Genomics↗

bioRxiv2016

A genomic view of the peopling of the Americas

Whole-genome studies have documented that most Native American ancestry stems from a single population that diversified within the continent more than twelve thousand years ago. However, this shared ancestry hides a more complex history whereby at least four distinct streams of Eurasian migration have contributed to present-day and prehistoric Native American populations. Whole genome studies enhanced by technological breakthroughs in ancient DNA now provide evidence of a sequence of events involving initial migration from a structured Northeast Asian source population, followed by a divergence into northern and southern Native American lineages. During the Holocene, new migrations from Asia introduced the Saqqaq/Dorset Paleoeskimo population to the North American Arctic ~4,500 years ago, ancestry that is potentially connected with ancestry found in Athabaskan-speakers today. This was then followed by a major new population turnover in the high Arctic involving Thule-related peoples who are the ancestors of present-day Inuit. We highlight several open questions that could be addressed through future genomic research.

Evolutionary Biology↗

bioRxiv2015

The origin and evolution of maize in the American Southwest

Maize offers an ideal system through which to demonstrate the potential of ancient population genomic techniques for reconstructing the evolution and spread of domesticates. The diffusion of maize from Mexico into the North American Southwest (SW) remains contentious with the available evidence being restricted to morphological studies of ancient maize plant material. We captured 1 Mb of nuclear DNA from 32 archaeological maize samples spanning 6000 years and compared them with modern landraces including those from the Mexican West coast and highlands. We found that the initial diffusion of domesticated maize into the SW is likely to have occurred through a highland route. However, by 2000 years ago a Pacific coastal corridor was also being used. Furthermore, we could distinguish between genes that were selected for early during domestication (such as zagl1 involved in shattering) from genes that changed in the SW context (e.g. related to sugar content and adaptation to drought) likely as a response to the local arid environment and new cultural uses of maize.

Evolutionary Biology↗