Scientists map the most current human lineage

The origin and evolution of mankind has always been one of the most concerned problems of scientists. The research team at Oxford University, UK, used the genetic data of ancient and modern humans to map the most complete human pedigree at present. The relevant research was published in science, entitled: a unified genetics of modern and anchor genes.

The study analyzed the genome sequences of 3609 individuals from 215 different populations, of which the ancient human genome was extracted from fossils ranging from 1000 to 100000 years ago. The research team developed a calculation model with the rate of genetic variation as the main parameter, and deduced a gene network containing nearly 27 million human ancestral information. On this basis, the researchers further integrated the regional information of 3609 samples into the calculation model, used the model to predict the residence of 27 million members in the gene network, and finally successfully reproduced the key events in human evolutionary history such as going out of Africa.

This study not only mapped the informative human pedigree, but also verified that genome-wide pedigree analysis is a powerful tool for studying human history and evolution.