Analysis of co-ancestry links in modern and ancient human populations

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to apply Identity by Descent (IBD) methodology to identify ancestry connections among individuals from genetically similar populations. Recombination events diminish the likelihood to detect IBDs. As most of the aDNA samples date from 2,000 years ago or more, this methodology has rarely been applied to these studies. In this thesis we detect IBD among modern individuals from similar Bantu populations and among modern Europeans with an historical individual (700 years ago) from the Iberian peninsula, which was sequenced to a high coverage. Our results show that IBDs can be used to detect the genomic structure in genetically close populations. For example, they can be used to show high degrees of endogamy caused by isolation or to identify ancestral connections among individuals belonging to different populations that otherwise would be difficult to see with other more commonly used methods.