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Genealogical and Evolutionary Inference with the Human Y Chromosome
Michael P. H. Stumpf,1David B. Goldstein2*
Population genetics has emerged as a powerful tool for
unraveling human history. In addition to the study of mitochondrialand
autosomal DNA, attention has recently focused on Y-chromosomevariation. Ambiguities and inaccuracies in data analysis, however,pose
an important obstacle to further development of the field.Here we
review the methods available for genealogical inferenceusing
Y-chromosome data. Approaches can be divided into thosethat do and
those that do not use an explicit population modelin genealogical
inference. We describe the strengths and weaknessesof these
model-based and model-free approaches, as well as difficultiesassociated with the mutation process that affect both methods.In the
case of genealogical inference using microsatellite loci,we use
coalescent simulations to show that relatively simple generalizationsof the mutation process can greatly increase the accuracy of
genealogicalinference. Because model-free and model-based approaches
havedifferent biases and limitations, we conclude that there is
considerablebenefit in the continued use of both types of
approaches.
1 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford,
Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
2 Department of Biology,
University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1
2HE, UK.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
d.goldstein{at}ucl.ac.uk
