Deep Human Genealogies Reveal a Selective Advantage to Be on an Expanding Wave Front

Since their origin, human populations have colonized the whole planet, but the demographic processes governing range expansions are mostly unknown. We analyzed the genealogy of more than one million individuals resulting from a range expansion in Quebec between 1686 and 1960 and reconstructed the sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science 2011-11, Vol.334 (6059), p.1148-1150
Main Authors: Moreau, Claudia, Bhérer, Claude, Vézina, Hélène, Jomphe, Michèle, Labuda, Damian, Excoffier, Laurent
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology. Demography
Biological and medical sciences
Children
Demography
Dynamic range
Emigration and Immigration
Evolution
Family Characteristics
Female
Female fertility
Fertility
Gene Pool
Genealogy
Genes
Genetic Fitness
Heritability
Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology
Human reproduction
Humans
Life cycles
Male
Marriage
Medical sciences
Pedigree
Population Dynamics
Population genetics
Population growth
Quebec
Registries
Reproduction
Selection, Genetic
Surfing
Wave fronts
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Summary:Since their origin, human populations have colonized the whole planet, but the demographic processes governing range expansions are mostly unknown. We analyzed the genealogy of more than one million individuals resulting from a range expansion in Quebec between 1686 and 1960 and reconstructed the spatial dynamics of the expansion. We find that a majority of the present Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean population can be traced back to ancestors having lived directly on or close to the wave front. Ancestors located on the front contributed significantly more to the current gene pool than those from the range core, likely due to a 20% larger effective fertility of women on the wave front. This fitness component is heritable on the wave front and not in the core, implying that this life-history trait evolves during range expansions.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1212880