title: Paleopopulation genetics.
abstract: Paleopopulation genetics is a new field that focuses on the population genetics of extinct groups and ancestral populations (i.e., populations ancestral to extant groups). With recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies, we now have unprecedented ability to directly assay genetic variation from fossils. This allows us to address issues, such as past population structure, changes in population size, and evolutionary relationships between taxa, at a much greater resolution than can traditional population genetics studies. In this review, we discuss recent developments in this emerging field as well as prospects for the future.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Human Genetics and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, California 94134, USA. wallj@humgen.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Wall
authors.forename: Montgomery
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Slatkin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005580:Fossils; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population / Q000379:methods*; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics; D059125:Neanderthals / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011156:Population Density; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial