title: Patrilineal populations show more male transmission of reproductive success than cognatic populations in Central Asia, which reduces their genetic diversity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The extent to which social organization of human societies impacts the patterns of genetic diversity remains an open question. Here, we investigate the transmission of reproductive success in patrilineal and cognatic populations from Central Asia using a coalescent approach.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a study on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome polymorphism of patrilineal and cognatic populations from Central Asia. We reconstructed the gene genealogies in each population for both kind of markers and inferred the imbalance level of these genealogies, a parameter directly related to the level of transmission of reproductive success.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This imbalance level appeared much stronger for the Y chromosome in patrilineal populations than in cognatic populations, while no difference was found for mtDNA. Furthermore, we showed that this imbalance level correlates negatively with Y-chromosomal, mtDNA, and autosomal genetic diversity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This shows that patrilineality might be one of the factors explaining the male transmission of reproductive success, which, in turn, lead to a reduction of genetic diversity. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that our population genetic approach clearly shows that there is a strong male-biased transmission of reproductive success in patrilineal societies, it also highlights the fact that a social process such as cultural transmission of reproductive success could play an important role in shaping human genetic diversity, although we cannot formally exclude that this transmission has also a genetic component.
authors.affiliation: Museum National D'histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Sorbonne Universités, Unité Eco-Anthropologie Et Ethnobiologie (UMR7206), Paris, France.
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heyer
authors.affiliation: Museum National D'histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Sorbonne Universités, Unité Eco-Anthropologie Et Ethnobiologie (UMR7206), Paris, France.|INRA, UMR 0320/UMR 8120 Génétique Végétale, Ferme Du Moulon, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91190, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Tristan
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Brandenburg
authors.affiliation: Museum National D'histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Sorbonne Universités, Unité Eco-Anthropologie Et Ethnobiologie (UMR7206), Paris, France.|Human Evolutionary Anthropology Group, Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leonardi
authors.affiliation: Museum National D'histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université Paris 7 Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Sorbonne Universités, Unité Eco-Anthropologie Et Ethnobiologie (UMR7206), Paris, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Toupance
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Anthropologie Moléculaire Et Imagerie De Synthèse, Unité Mixte De Recherche 5288 Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique-Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, 31073, France.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balaresque
authors.affiliation: Academy of Sciences, Institute of Immunology, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hegay
authors.affiliation: National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic.
authors.forename: Almaz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aldashev
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Austerlitz
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D056084:Genetic Fitness / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012098:Reproduction
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: central Asia; cultural transmission of reproductive success; gene-culture evolution; human evolution; patrilineality