Thursday, January 19, 2017

Modern human origins: multiregional evolution of autosomes and East Asia origin of Y and mtDNA

After 7 years of hard work, our paper on rewriting human evolution has finally been finished and made public. We must congratulate ourselves, absolutely brilliant!


Modern human origins: multiregional evolution of autosomes and East Asia origin of Y and mtDNA
Dejian Yuan, Xiaoyun Lei, Yuanyuan Gui, Zuobin Zhu, Dapeng Wang, Jun Yu, Shi Huang
bioRxiv 101410; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/101410
Abstract
Recent studies have established that genetic diversities are mostly maintained by selection, therefore rendering the present molecular model of human origins untenable. Using improved methods and public data, we have revisited human evolution and derived an age of 1.91-1.96 million years for the first split in modern human autosomes. We found evidence of modern Y and mtDNA originating in East Asia and dispersing via hybridization with archaic humans. Neanderthals and Denisovans were archaic Africans with Eurasian admixtures and ancestors of South Asia Negritos and Aboriginal Australians. Verifying our model, we found more ancestry of Southern Chinese from Hunan in Africans relative to other East Asian groups examined. These results suggest multiregional evolution of autosomes and East Asia origin of Y and mtDNA, thereby leading to a coherent account of modern human origins.