This is the blog for GW students taking Human Evolutionary Genetics. This site is for posting interesting tidbits on: the patterns and processes of human genetic variation;human origins and migration; molecular adaptations to environment, lifestyle and disease; ancient and forensic DNA analyses; and genealogical reconstructions.

GWHEG figure

GWHEG figure

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Imprint of Assortative Mating on the Human Genome


My husband is short and so am I. Sometimes, an individual will pick a partner that resembles him/herself in various traits (assortative mating). The authors of this paper, Imprint of Assortative Mating on the Human Genome, apply a novel method to detect assortative mating in the human genome. They determined genetic predictors of various traits from SNPs on even-numbered and odd-numbered chromosomes and then computed the correlation between the predictors on the even-numbered chromosomes and odd-numbered chromosomes (θ). The authors present genetic evidence that humans engage in assortative mating for at least two traits: height and level of education.

Correlations between Mates for Genetic Predictors of Height & Level of Education

The authors reasoned that after many generations of assortative mating, the population would reach an equilibrium in which rm = ~2θ.



x-axis – estimate of θ, measurement of assortative mating in parental generation
y-axis – estimate of rm, measurement of assortative mating in current generation



Elaine Miller - Potluck 2/4/2020

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