Human evolutionary genetics

Human evolutionary genetics studies how genetic variation in human populations arose and changed through mutation, migration, natural selection, and demographic history.

Genetic drift: Random changes in allele frequencies caused by chance events in finite populations. Drift can rapidly alter variation in small human populations, independently of natural selection.
Allele frequency: The proportion of gene copies in a population that carry a particular allele. Evolutionary explanations are tested by tracking allele frequencies across populations and time.
Population structure: The organization of genetic variation into partially differentiated groups within a species. Accounting for structure prevents ancestry differences from being mistaken for evolutionary causes.
Out of Africa model: The model that modern humans originated in Africa and later dispersed to other regions. Genetic diversity and ancestry patterns strongly support an African origin for modern humans.
Polygenic score portability: The extent to which genetic scores trained in one population predict traits in another population. Population differences can limit evolutionary interpretations based on trait-associated scores.
Natural selection: The change in heritable traits across generations when individuals differ in survival or reproduction. Selection explains adaptations and other allele-frequency changes linked to reproductive success.
Haplotype: A set of genetic variants inherited together on one chromosome segment. Haplotype patterns help identify ancestry, admixture, and recent selection.
Admixture: The mixing of previously separated populations through reproduction. Genome-wide ancestry patterns can identify and date episodes of human population mixture.
Neanderthal introgression: The incorporation of Neanderthal DNA into the genomes of some modern human populations through interbreeding. It is a clear genomic record of contact between modern humans and archaic populations.
Genetic ancestry: An estimate of biological descent inferred from patterns of genetic similarity and difference. Ancestry estimates depend on reference samples and do not map neatly onto social identities.

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Molecular clockRelated: Molecular clocks estimate dates for population splits and ancestry within human history.