title: Going the distance: human population genetics in a clinal world.
abstract: Global human genetic variation is greatly influenced by geography, with genetic differentiation between populations increasing with geographic distance and within-population diversity decreasing with distance from Africa. In fact, these 'clines' can explain most of the variation in human populations. Despite this, population genetics inferences often rely on models that do not take geography into account, which could result in misleading conclusions when working at global geographic scales. Geographically explicit approaches have great potential for the study of human population genetics. Here, we discuss the most promising avenues of research in the context of human settlement history and the detection of genomic elements under natural selection. We also review recent technical advances and address the challenges of integrating geography and genetics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK. L.Lawson-Handley@hull.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lori J Lawson
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Handley
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manica
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goudet
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Balloux
mesh_terms: D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012641:Selection, Genetic