J M Roberts-Thomson | PubMed Health

PubMed1999

Minisatellite mutational processes reduce F(st) estimates.

We have used a new method for binning minisatellite alleles (semi-automated allele aggregation) and report the extent of population diversity detectable by eleven minisatellite loci in 2,689 individuals from 19 human populations distributed widely throughout the world. Whereas population relationships are consistent with those found in other studies, our estimate of genetic differentiation (F(st)) between populations is less than 8%, which is lower than comparative estimates of between 10%-15% obtained by using other sources of polymorphism data. We infer that mutational processes are involved in reducing F(st) estimates from minisatellite data because, first, the lowest F(st) estimates are found at loci showing autocorrelated frequencies among alleles of similar size and, second, F(st) declines with heterozygosity but by more than predicted assuming simple models of mutation. These conclusions are consistent with the view that minisatellites are subject to selective or mutational constraints in addition to those expected under simple step-wise mutation models.

Alleles↗

PubMed1996

An ancient common origin of aboriginal Australians and New Guinea highlanders is supported by alpha-globin haplotype analysis.

The origins of aboriginal Australians and their relationship with New Guineans and neighboring Southeast Asians remains controversial. We have studied the alpha-globin haplotype composition of an aboriginal tribe from central Australia, to address some of the ambiguities of previous studies. Australians have a haplotype repertoire that is shared with New Guinea highlanders, a fact that strongly supports a common origin of these two populations. Further, Australians and New Guinea highlanders have a different set of alpha haplotypes from Southeast Asians and a lower genetic diversity. This, coupled with the presence of many locally specific central Australian haplotypes, suggests that much of the original diversity was lost in a population bottleneck prior to or during the early colonization of Sahul and that subsequent recovery of diversity has been accompanied by the generation of new haplotypes. These conclusions contrast with some previous genetic studies suggesting links between Australians, coastal New Guineans, and present-day Southeast Asians. Much of this discrepancy appears to be due to more recent Southeast Asian admixture on the north coast of Australia.

Australia↗