title: Genetic surfing in human populations: from genes to genomes.
abstract: Genetic surfing describes the spatial spread and increase in frequency of variants that are not lost by genetic drift and serial migrant sampling during a range expansion. Genetic surfing does not modify the total number of derived alleles in a population or in an individual genome, but it leads to a loss of heterozygosity along the expansion axis, implying that derived alleles are more often in homozygous state. Genetic surfing also affects selected variants on the wave front, making them behave almost like neutral variants during the expansion. In agreement with theoretical predictions, human genomic data reveals an increase in recessive mutation load with distance from Africa, an expansion load likely to have developed during the expansions of human populations out of Africa.
authors: CMPG, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Berne, Switzerland; Interfaculty Bioinformatics Unit, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Berne, Switzerland. Electronic address: stephan.peischl@bioinformatics.unibe.ch.
authors: Stephan
authors: S
authors: Peischl
authors: CMPG, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Berne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors: Isabelle
authors: I
authors: Dupanloup
authors: CMPG, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Berne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Bosshard
authors: CMPG, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Berne, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: laurent.excoffier@iee.unibe.ch.
authors: Laurent
authors: L
authors: Excoffier
mesh_terms: D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D040961:Genetic Drift; D005828:Genetics, Population; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics