Evolutionary Genetics of Human Populations

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

  The teaching methodology will include: i) lectures on the topics of the programme; ii) visits to several locations in the city of Coimbra where cultural influence of the people who migrated into the Iberian Peninsula for the past 2 millennia is visible; and iii) the realization of a field work in the laboratory where students may learn the basic methods and techniques for studying human genetic diversity. 

Learning Outcomes

  The main goals of human evolutionary genetics are: i) to understand human genetic variation and evolution, and ii) to reconstruct human population history and demographic history using the genetic record.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Theoretical foundations of evolutionary genetics. Structure, function, inheritance, diversity and processes that shape human genome; it’s diversity as reflection of demographic history of human populations;  most recent common ancestor; coalescence theory; Y chromosome and mDNA in study human evolution; origin and diversity of modern humans: out of Africa into Asia, Australia and Europe
Genetic record of past: aDNA; studying genetic variation in ancient samples: degradation and contamination; it’s application in reconstruction evolutionary history of human species; colonization of Old World, Australia and Americas
Migration and colonization in human microevolution: migrations of Phoenicians, Jews, Muslims into Iberia; Anglo-Saxon mass migration; European and African into Brazil
Dual-inheritance model of biological and cultural evolution: cultural practices as key drivers of human genetic evolution; emerging field of human social genomics; coevolution of genes and language.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria Manuela Pratas Alvarez

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Laboratory work or Field work: 20.0%
Exam: 80.0%

Bibliography

1. Jobling M, Hollox E, Hurles M, Kivisild T and Tyler-Smith C (2013)  Human Evolutionary Genetics. Garland Science, Abingdon and New York (New York, USA).
2. Hedrick, P. W. (2005). Genetics of Populations. Jones and Bartlett Publishers

               (Massachusetts, USA).

1. Strachan, T. & Read, A. P., 2004 - Human Molecular Genetics. Garland Science (New York, USA).
2. Cole SW (2014) Human Social Genomics. PLoS Genet 10(8): e1004601. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004601 Editor: Greg Gibson, Georgia Institute of Technology.
3. Pritchard JK, Pickrell JK, Coop G (2010) The genetics of human adaptation: hard sweeps, soft sweeps, and polygenic adaptation Curr Biol 20: pp. R208–R215
4. Pääbo S (2014) The human condition — a molecular approach Cell, 157:  pp. 216–226

    Vitti JJ, Cho MK, Tishkoff SA, Sabeti PC (2012) Human evolutionary genomics: ethical and interpretive issues Trends Genet, 28: pp. 137–145
        T. Azumagakito, R. Suzuki, T. Arita (2013) Cyclic behavior in gene-culture coevolution mediated by phenotypic plasticity in language Advances in Artificial Life, ECAL, 12: pp. 617–624
        Richerson PJ, Boyd R (2008) Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution University of Chicago Press

Perreault C (2012) The pace of cultural evolution PLoS ONE, 7: pp. e45150.