Human Evolutionary Genetics

Mark Jobling is a Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, UK. Following a BA in Biochemistry and a DPhil in Genetics from the University of Oxford, he came to Leicester as an MRC Training Fellow in 1992, and has held a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Science since 1999. His research is in the area of human genetic diversity and the forces that pattern it, from mutation processes to cultural factors in human populations. He has a long-term interest in the Y chromosome and its many peculiarities. Ed Hollox is a Lecturer in the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, UK. Following a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and PhD in Genetics from University College London, he spent several years as a postdoc at the University of Nottingham before taking up his current post in 2006. His research interest is the natural genetic diversity of humans and other mammals, in particular the structural variation of genomes. Matthew Hurles is a Senior Group Leader in Human Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK. Following a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, he received his PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester, and established his group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2003. His research interests are in medical and population genetics, with a long term interest in mutation processes and a current focus on the application of genome sequencing to the diagnosis of rare genetic disorders. Toomas Kivisild is a Reader in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK. He received his PhD from University of Tartu, Estonia, and his earlier research focused on mitochondrial DNA variation in human populations. His current research interests are in human evolution and evolutionary population genetics, with a particular focus on questions relating global genetic population structure with evolutionary processes such as selection, drift, migrations and admixture. Chris Tyler-Smith heads the Human Evolution team at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford and received a PhD form the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include genetic variation in humans and gorillas, and the insights these provide into our evolutionary histories and disease susceptibilities.

1. An Introduction to Human Evolutionary Genetics
Section I: How Do We Study Genetic Variation? 2. Organization and Inheritance of the Human Genome
3. Human Genome Variation
4. Finding and Assaying Genome Diversity
Section II: How Do We Interpret Genetic Variation? 5. Processes Shaping Diversity
6. Making Inferences from Diversity
Section III: Where and When Did Humans Originate? 7. Humans as Apes
8. What Genetic Changes Have Made Us Human?
9. Origins of Modern Humans
Section IV: How Did Humans Colonize the World? 10. The Distribution of Diversity
11. The Colonization of the Old World And Australia
12. Agricultural Expansions
13. Into New Found Lands
14. What Happens When Populations Meet?
Section V: How Is An Evolutionary Perspective Helpful? 15. Understanding the Past, Present and Future of Phenotypic Variation
16. Evolutionary Insights into Simple Genetic Diseases
17. Evolution and Complex Diseases
18. Identity and Identification