Effects of Genetic Divergence in Identifying Ancestral Origin Using HAPAA

Abstract

Human population migration, adaptation, and admixture have a chaotic and mostly undocumented history, but we are at the cusp of an era where we will be able to unlock these records from our genomes. An admixed individual’s genome with ancestors from isolated populations is a mosaic of chromosomal blocks, each following the statistical properties of variation seen in those populations. By analyzing polymorphisms in the admixed individual against those seen in representatives from the populations, we can infer the ancestral source of the individual’s haploblocks. Several methods have emerged recently that use SNPs as a basis for variation to infer the ancestral population composition of admixed individuals.