0:00
Welcome to the lecture
on Statistical Techniques
in Human Population Genetics,
part of the statistical
genetic series.
I'm Garrett Hellenthal,
a research fellow
at University College London
whose main work
is in statistical
and population genetics.
0:13
The main aims of this lecture
are to describe the biological
and demographic processes
that contribute
to genetic diversity,
describe
the statistical techniques
that use observed DNA patterns
to infer these past processes,
illustrate the types of data
used for inferring
human history,
and how we can learn
different aspects of history
using these different
types of data, and finally,
highlight some key findings
about human history
derived through the use
of these techniques.
0:39
We'll start with
some brief background.
While overall DNA patterns
among different human groups
are very similar,
nonetheless they are
clear genetic differences
among different
human groups today.
Several factors have contributed
to this observed
genetic diversity.
For example,
geographic isolation,
groups being separated
from each other
due to physical boundaries,
population size changes,
and intermixing or admixture
among genetically
different groups.
And underlying these factors
are the usual genetic processes
you will have learned about
by now,
that which we'll
briefly review here,
genetic drift, mutation,
recombination, and selection.
What the population geneticist
is trying to do then
is take the genetic differences
that we observed
and try to reverse this to learn
about the past processes
that have led
to these differences.
