Using ancient human genomes to uncover temporal and spatial population dynamics
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European genetic population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000-3,000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed in the historical period onward (3,000 YBP - present). This dissertation addresses this question through both spatial and temporal dimensions. First, we showed that the population in the city of Rome alone was highly dynamic over time, and remarkably heterogeneous at the height of the Roman Empire, including 40% of the population having Near Eastern ancestry. To understand the genetic structure of contemporaneous populations outside of Rome and how they interacted, we collected whole genomes from 204 European and Mediterranean individuals, many of which are the first historical period genomes from their region (e.g. Armenia, France). Similar to our findings in Rome, we found that most regions show remarkable inter-individual heterogeneity. Around 8% of historical individuals carry ancestry uncommon or non-existent in the region where they were sampled, some indicating cross-Mediterranean contacts. Despite this high level of mobility, overall population structure across western Eurasia is relatively stable through the historical period up to the present, mirroring the geographic map. We show that, under standard population genetics models with local panmixia, the observed level of dispersal would lead to a collapse of population structure. Persistent population structure thus suggests a lower effective migration rate than indicated by the observed dispersal. This phenomenon can be explained by extensive transient dispersal arising from drastically improved transportation networks and the Roman Empire's mobilization of people for trade, labor, and military. Together, these works highlight the utility of ancient DNA in elucidating finer scale human population dynamics in recent history
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Antonio, Margaret-Mary Lundy |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Pritchard, Jonathan D |
| Thesis advisor | Pritchard, Jonathan D |
| Thesis advisor | Altman, Russ |
| Thesis advisor | Rosenberg, Noah |
| Thesis advisor | Schumer, Molly |
| Degree committee member | Altman, Russ |
| Degree committee member | Rosenberg, Noah |
| Degree committee member | Schumer, Molly |
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Data Science |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Margaret L. Antonio |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Biomedical Data Science |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022 |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/mh284nm0248 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Margaret-Mary Lundy Antonio
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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