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

Ferrando-Bernal, Manuel

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

Document Type

Doctoral thesis
Published Version

Author

Ferrando-Bernal, Manuel

Director

Lalueza Fox, Carles

Publication Date

2021-07-09

Pages

153 p.

License

Citation

Ferrando-Bernal, M. Analysis of co-ancestry links in modern and ancient human populations. 2021. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/672475

This citation was generated automatically.

Doctoral program

Programa de doctorat en Biomedicina

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.