The root of the phylogenetic tree of human populations.

Although African populations have been shown to be most divergent from any other human populations, it has been difficult to establish the root of the phylogenetic tree of human populations since the rate of evolutionary change may vary from population to population owing to the fluctuation of population size and other factors. However, the root can be determined by using the chimpanzee as an outgroup and by employing proper statistical methods. Using this strategy, we constructed phylogenetic trees of human populations for five different sets of gene frequency data. The data sets used were two sets of microsatellite loci data (25 and 8 loci, respectively), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) data (79 loci), protein polymorphism data (15 loci), and Alu insertion frequency data (4 loci). All these data sets showed that the root is located in the branch connecting African and non-African populations, and in the four data sets the root was established at a significant level. These results indicate that Africans are the first group of people that split from the rest of the human populations.

[1]  M. Nei.  Molecular Evolutionary Genetics , 1987 .

[2]  Masatoshi Nei,et al.  Human Polymorphic Genes: World Distribution , 1988 .

[3]  M. Nei,et al.  Relationships between intrapopulational and interpopulational genetic diversity in man. , 1990, Annals of human biology.

[4]  J. Yellen,et al.  A middle stone age worked bone industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire. , 1995, Science.

[5]  A. Templeton.  Human origins and analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. , 1992, Science.

[6]  M. Nei.  Genetic support for the out-of-Africa theory of human evolution. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[7]  L. Cavalli-Sforza,et al.  High resolution of human evolutionary trees with polymorphic microsatellites , 1994, Nature.

[8]  N. Saitou,et al.  The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. , 1987, Molecular biology and evolution.

[9]  N. Takahata,et al.  Allelic genealogy and human evolution. , 1993, Molecular biology and evolution.

[10]  A Piazza,et al.  Reconstruction of human evolution: bringing together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic data. , 1988, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[11]  M. Ruvolo,et al.  Gene trees and hominoid phylogeny. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[12]  M. Wolpoff.  Modern homo sapiens origins : A general theory of hominid evolution involving the fossil evidence from East Asia , 1984 .

[13]  A. Templeton.  The “Eve” Hypotheses: A Genetic Critique and Reanalysis , 1993 .

[14]  A. Zharkikh,et al.  Statistical properties of bootstrap estimation of phylogenetic variability from nucleotide sequences. I. Four taxa with a molecular clock. , 1992, Molecular biology and evolution.

[15]  A Rzhetsky,et al.  Interior-branch and bootstrap tests of phylogenetic trees. , 1995, Molecular biology and evolution.

[16]  M. Nei,et al.  Extent of protein polymosphism and the neutral mutation theory , 1984 .

[17]  F. Tajima.  Evolutionary relationship of DNA sequences in finite populations. , 1983, Genetics.

[18]  M. King,et al.  Evolution at two levels in humans and chimpanzees. , 1975, Science.

[19]  M. Nei,et al.  Evolutionary relationships of human populations on a global scale. , 1993, Molecular biology and evolution.

[20]  W. Brown,et al.  Extensive polymorphism in the mitochondrial DNA of apes. , 1981, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  L. Cavalli-Sforza,et al.  Inference of human evolution through cladistic analysis of nuclear DNA restriction polymorphisms. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[22]  M. Nei,et al.  Genetic relationships of Europeans, Asians and Africans and the origin of modern Homo sapiens. , 1989, Human heredity.

[23]  C. Stringer,et al.  Genetic and fossil evidence for the origin of modern humans. , 1988, Science.

[24]  K K Kidd,et al.  Drift, admixture, and selection in human evolution: a study with DNA polymorphisms. , 1991, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[25]  M. Nei,et al.  Relationships between gene trees and species trees. , 1988, Molecular biology and evolution.

[26]  T. E. Reed,et al.  Caucasian genes in American Negroes. , 1969, Science.

[27]  L. Jin,et al.  Population genetics of dinucleotide (dC-dA)n.(dG-dT)n polymorphisms in world populations. , 1995, American journal of human genetics.

[28]  John C. Avise,et al.  PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA UNDER VARIOUS DEMOGRAPHIC MODELS OF SPECIATION , 1986 .

[29]  J. Bull,et al.  An Empirical Test of Bootstrapping as a Method for Assessing Confidence in Phylogenetic Analysis , 1993 .

[30]  M. Nei,et al.  MOLECULAR POPULATION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION , 1976 .

[31]  J. Felsenstein.  Confidence Limits on Phylogenies With a Molecular Clock , 1985 .

[32]  J. N. Smith,et al.  Dating and context of three middle stone age sites with bone points in the Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire. , 1995, Science.

[33]  N. Takahata,et al.  Recent African origin of modern humans revealed by complete sequences of hominoid mitochondrial DNAs. , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.