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Marlo Möller

Publications and source records attributed to Marlo Möller.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Post-colonial human admixture and natural selection: disentangling signals in complex demographic contexts.

Natural selection and admixture are defining population genetic features of modern human populations, yet their interaction has only recently emerged as a major focus in human evolutionary genomics. While the influence of natural selection on population structure and trait diversity is well established, the ways in which selective pressures operate after admixture have historically received far less attention. In this review, we synthesise the latest progress in understanding post-admixture selection and highlight case studies that illustrate how novel environments, pathogen exposure, dietary shifts and socio-historical transformations have driven genomic adaptation. We conclude by identifying key gaps that remain in the field with the aim of motivating future research and facilitating new insights into how admixture and selection jointly shape human diversity.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2026

Recovering the precolonial population structure of Khoe-San descendant populations.

San populations from Botswana and Namibia retain exceptional linguistic, cultural, and genetic diversity, but few Khoisan-speaking groups remain south of the Kalahari Desert. However, historically, far southern Africa was home to many San and Khoekhoe groups. Popular opinion often implies that such populations do not contribute to the ancestry of contemporary South Africans. Here, we characterize the genetic ancestry of self-identified South African Coloured groups and reconstruct precolonial and colonial population structures from 620 newly sampled individuals. These groups retain the majority of Khoe-San genetic ancestry (>48%), suggesting the persistence of Khoe-San ancestry to the present day. By isolating the Khoe-San ancestry component, we show that it is intermediate between the ≠Khomani San and Nama and distinct from Kalahari Khoe-San populations. We also find that signatures of the Indian Ocean slave trade can be traced to Indonesian islands such as Sulawesi, Java, and Flores, while the South Asian ancestry is regionally nonspecific.

Humans↗
PubMed2026

Human iPSC-derived alveolar macrophages reveal macrophage subtype functions of itaconate in M. tuberculosis defense.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) survives within multiple macrophage populations during infection, including alveolar macrophages (AMs) and recruited inflammatory macrophages. In mice, itaconate, produced in macrophages by ACOD1-mediated decarboxylation of aconitate, has direct antimicrobial activity, modulates inflammatory cytokines, and is required for resistance to Mtb infection. The role of itaconate in human macrophages is less clear, and it is unknown whether itaconate mediates distinct effects in macrophage subtypes. Here, we investigated the role of itaconate in macrophages derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), induced by either GM-CSF to resemble AMs (AM-like cells, hereafter ipAM-Ls) or M-CSF to resemble monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM-like cells, hereafter ipMDM-Ls). Both human macrophage types produced substantially less itaconate than mouse macrophages, and ipAM-Ls produced 4-fold less itaconate than ipMDM-Ls. Surprisingly, ACOD1-deficient ipAM-Ls, but not ipMDM-Ls, were permissive for Mtb growth. Moreover, itaconate functioned to dampen the Mtb-induced inflammatory response in ipMDM-Ls, but not ipAM-Ls, affecting both the type I IFN and TNF pathways. These results indicate that itaconate is involved in human macrophage responses to tuberculosis, with distinct roles in different macrophage subsets. These results also show that genetically tractable iPSC-derived macrophages are a useful model to dissect cellular host-pathogen interactions in human macrophages.

Humans↗