C J Mulligan
Biographic Data
| ID | 53330 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C J Mulligan |
| GIVEN NAMES | C J |
| FAMILY NAME | Mulligan |
| SIGNATURE | MULLIGAN C J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4360-2402 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 158 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Childhood Trauma and Pregnancy Psychosocial Experiences of Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Children and adolescents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) frequently endure significant challenges and traumas that carry lasting implications for adult health. Decades of conflict in the DRC have left many women with childhood trauma, which often manifests as psychosocial problems during pregnancy. We investigated the associations between childhood traumas and the psychosocial experiences of pregnancy in adulthood. Cross-sectional d…
Social dynamics influencing cholera risk in the City of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo: A qualitative study
This work broadens our understanding of factors that contribute to cholera risk in Goma. These factors should be addressed by implementing diverse strategies that involve the affected communities rather than focusing on rapid public health outreach response interventions. In addition, the, development and the maintenance of a safe and reliable water infrastructures in the city is essential to reduce the chronic nature of cholera infection in the …
The social patterning of vicarious discrimination: Implications for health equity
Overall, our data show that vicarious discrimination is more common than widely understood and associated with individual-level sociodemographic characteristics that index one's position in broader social systems. The prevalence of vicarious discrimination in the absence of direct discrimination suggests that standard approaches, which measure individual exposures in isolation, are subject to misclassification bias. Our results imply that existin…
Systemic racism can get under our skin and into our genes
Special Issue - Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021 Many sociocultural factors, like poverty and trauma, or homelessness versus a safe neighborhood, can get "under our skin" and affect our lives. These factors may also get "into our genes" through epigenetic changes that influence how genes are expressed. Changes in gene expression can further influence how we respond to sociocultural factors a…
Stressful social environment and financial strain drive depressive symptoms, and reveal the effects of a FKBP5 variant and male sex, in African Americans living in Tallahassee
OBJECTIVES: The World Health Organization estimates that almost 300 million people suffer from depression worldwide. African Americans are understudied for depression-related phenotypes despite widespread racial disparities. In our study of African Americans, we integrated information on psychosocial stressors with genetic variation in order to better understand how these factors associated with depressive symptoms. METHODS: Our research strategy…
Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021
Special Issue ‐ Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021
Shortened telomere length is associated with unfair treatment attributed to race in African Americans living in Tallahassee, Florida
OBJECTIVES: Experiences of interpersonal discrimination are pervasive stressors in the lives of African Americans. Increased discrimination stress may cause premature aging. Telomere length (TL) is a plastic genetic trait that is an emerging indicator of cellular health and aging. Short TL is a risk factor for the earlier onset of disease. TL shortens with age, a process that may be accelerated by psychosocial stress. Our study explores the relat…
Response to letters to the editor concerning Ajpa commentary on “data sharing in biological anthropology: Guiding principles and best practices”
Analyses of Neanderthal introgression suggest that Levantine and southern Arabian populations have a shared population history
OBJECTIVES: Modern humans are thought to have interbred with Neanderthals in the Near East soon after modern humans dispersed out of Africa. This introgression event likely took place in either the Levant or southern Arabia depending on the dispersal route out of Africa that was followed. In this study, we compare Neanderthal introgression in contemporary Levantine and southern Arabian populations to investigate Neanderthal introgression and to s…
Data sharing in biological anthropology: Guiding principles and best practices
In 2017 the AAPA established an ad hoc committee on data access and data sharing; committee members were Trudy Turner (Chair), Connie Mulligan (Co-Chair), Doug Boyer, Eric Delson, and William Leonard. With support from a NSF grant to the association, the committee led a workshop on data sharing in biological anthropology on February 8–9, 2019 in Milwaukee, WI. Forty participants representing all aspects of the field were able to reach consensus o…
The Emerging Field of Social and Behavioral Epigenetics
Social and behavioral epigenetics is the study of psychosocial factors that impact biology through an epigenetic mechanism. Epigenetic modifications influence the activity of genes without altering the underlying DNA sequence. DNA methylation is one type of epigenetic modification that has been widely studied and found to associate with a broad range of psychosocial stressors. This essay reviews the landmark studies and current innovations. An ev…
DNA methylation of methylation complex genes in relation to stress and genome‐wide methylation in mother–newborn dyads
OBJECTIVES: Early life stress is known to have enduring biological effects, particularly with respect to health. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, are a possible mechanism to mediate the biological effect of stress. We previously found correlations between maternal stress, newborn birthweight, and genome-wide measures of DNA methylation. Here we investigate ten genes related to the methylation/demethylation complex in order to be…
The peopling of the Americas and the origin of the Beringian occupation model
The current model for peopling of the Americas involves divergence from an ancestral Asian population followed by a period of population isolation and genetic diversification in Beringia, and finally, a rapid expansion into and throughout the Americas. Studies in the 1970s sought to characterize the biological relationships between different indigenous populations and first proposed an occupation of Beringia. More recent studies using molecular g…
Testing support for the northern and southern dispersal routes out of Africa: An analysis of Levantine and southern Arabian populations
Objectives The Northern Dispersal Route (NDR) and Southern Dispersal Route (SDR) are hypothesized to have been used by modern humans in the dispersal out of Africa. The NDR follows the Nile into Northeast Africa and crosses the Red Sea into the Levant. The SDR emerges from the Horn of Africa and crosses the Bab el‐Mandeb into southern Arabia. In this study, we analyze genetic data from populations living along the NDR and SDR to test support for …
Origin of pre-Columbian guinea pigs from Caribbean archeological sites revealed through genetic analysis
Bayesian analyses of Yemeni mitochondrial genomes suggest multiple migration events with Africa and Western Eurasia
OBJECTIVES: Anatomically, modern humans are thought to have migrated out of Africa ∼60,000 years ago in the first successful global dispersal. This initial migration may have passed through Yemen, a region that has experienced multiple migrations events with Africa and Eurasia throughout human history. We use Bayesian phylogenetics to determine how ancient and recent migrations have shaped Yemeni mitogenomic variation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We s…
Comprehensive view of the population history of A rabia as inferred by mt DNA variation
OBJECTIVES: Genetic and archaeological research supports the theory that Arabia was the first region traversed by modern humans as they left Africa and dispersed throughout Eurasia. However, the role of Arabia from the initial migration out of Africa until more recent times is still unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have generated 379 new hypervariable segment 1 (HVS-1) sequences from a range of geographic locations throughout Yemen. We compare …
Early Environments, Stress, and the Epigenetics of Human Health
The field of social and behavioral epigenetics examines the role of epigenetic modifications to mediate the effect of psychosocial stressors on an individual's health and well-being. Epigenetic modifications influence gene expression, which can lead to changes in an individual's phenotype. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that varies throughout the lifespan and appears to respond to a wide range of psychosocial and biologic…
Interaction of Alu Polymorphisms and Novel Measures of Discrimination in Association with Blood Pressure in African Americans Living in Tallahassee, Florida
African Americans are 40% more likely to be afflicted with hypertension than are non-Hispanic, white Americans, resulting in a 30% higher instance of mortality due to cardiovascular disease. There is debate about the relative contributions of genetic and sociocultural risk factors to the racial disparity in hypertension. We assayed three Alu insertion polymorphisms located in the ACE (angiotensin 1 converting enzyme), PLAT (plasminogen activator,…
Social and Behavioral Epigenetics
Anthropological Genetics
Over the past few decades, anthropologists have increasingly used genetic approaches in their efforts to understand humans and their primate relatives.Technological and theoretical developments in recent years have enabled anthropological geneticists to expand their field of inquiry far beyond what was thought possible even a few years ago (Crawford 2000).Most importantly, the cost of collecting large genetic data sets has dropped dramatically, a…
A biocultural study of the effects of maternal stress on mother and newborn health in the D emocratic R epublic of C ongo
The impact of stress on human health is a topic of wide‐spread relevance and one that is particularly amenable to multidisciplinary investigation. Stress impacts both our psychological and physical health and, thus, may leave evidence on our psyche, our physical body and our genome. We are interested in the effect of extreme stressors, such as war, on health from the perspective of long‐term and multigenerational effects. We integrate sociocultur…
Donkey Domestication
Culture modifies expectations of kinship and sex‐biased dispersal patterns: A case study of patrilineality and patrilocality in tribal yemen
Studies of the impact of post‐marital residence patterns on the distribution of genetic variation within populations have returned conflicting results. These studies have generally examined genetic diversity within and between groups with different post‐marriage residence patterns. Here, we directly examine Y chromosome microsatellite variation in individuals carrying a chromosome in the same Y haplogroup. We analyze Y chromosome data from two sa…
Education, Genetic Ancestry, and Blood Pressure in African Americans and Whites
Objectives. We assessed the relative roles of education and genetic ancestry in predicting blood pressure (BP) within African Americans and explored the association between education and BP across racial groups. Methods. We used t tests and linear regressions to examine the associations of genetic ancestry, estimated from a genomewide set of autosomal markers, and education with BP variation among African Americans in the Family Blood Pressure Pr…
Early Environments, Stress, and the Epigenetics of Human Health
The field of social and behavioral epigenetics examines the role of epigenetic modifications to mediate the effect of psychosocial stressors on an individual's health and well-being. Epigenetic modifications influence gene expression, which can lead to changes in an individual's phenotype. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that varies throughout the lifespan and appears to respond to a wide range of psychosocial and biologic…
A biocultural study of the effects of maternal stress on mother and newborn health in the D emocratic R epublic of C ongo
The impact of stress on human health is a topic of wide‐spread relevance and one that is particularly amenable to multidisciplinary investigation. Stress impacts both our psychological and physical health and, thus, may leave evidence on our psyche, our physical body and our genome. We are interested in the effect of extreme stressors, such as war, on health from the perspective of long‐term and multigenerational effects. We integrate sociocultur…
The peopling of the Americas and the origin of the Beringian occupation model
The current model for peopling of the Americas involves divergence from an ancestral Asian population followed by a period of population isolation and genetic diversification in Beringia, and finally, a rapid expansion into and throughout the Americas. Studies in the 1970s sought to characterize the biological relationships between different indigenous populations and first proposed an occupation of Beringia. More recent studies using molecular g…
Education, Genetic Ancestry, and Blood Pressure in African Americans and Whites
Objectives. We assessed the relative roles of education and genetic ancestry in predicting blood pressure (BP) within African Americans and explored the association between education and BP across racial groups. Methods. We used t tests and linear regressions to examine the associations of genetic ancestry, estimated from a genomewide set of autosomal markers, and education with BP variation among African Americans in the Family Blood Pressure Pr…
Regional differences in the distribution of the sub‐Saharan, West Eurasian, and South Asian mtDNA lineages in Yemen
Despite its key location for population movements out of and back into Africa, Yemen has not yet been sampled on a regional level for an investigation of sub‐Saharan, West Eurasian, and South Asian genetic contributions. In this study, we present mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data for regionally distinct Yemeni populations that reveal different distributions of mtDNA lineages. An extensive database of mtDNA sequences from North and East African, Midd…
Data sharing in biological anthropology: Guiding principles and best practices
In 2017 the AAPA established an ad hoc committee on data access and data sharing; committee members were Trudy Turner (Chair), Connie Mulligan (Co-Chair), Doug Boyer, Eric Delson, and William Leonard. With support from a NSF grant to the association, the committee led a workshop on data sharing in biological anthropology on February 8–9, 2019 in Milwaukee, WI. Forty participants representing all aspects of the field were able to reach consensus o…
Donkey Domestication
Out of Arabia—The settlement of Island Soqotra as revealed by mitochondrial and Y chromosome genetic diversity
The Soqotra archipelago is one of the most isolated landmasses in the world, situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden between the Horn of Africa and southern Arabia. The main island of Soqotra lies not far from the proposed southern migration route of anatomically modern humans out of Africa ∼60,000 years ago (kya), suggesting the island may harbor traces of that first dispersal. Nothing is known about the timing and origin of the first Soqotri …
Pleistocene‐Holocene boundary in Southern Arabia from the perspective of human mtDNA variation
It is now known that several population movements have taken place at different times throughout southern Arabian prehistory. One of the principal questions under debate is if the Early Holocene peopling of southern Arabia was mainly due to input from the Levant during the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B, to the expansion of an autochthonous population, or some combination of these demographic processes. Since previous genetic studies have not been able …
Comprehensive view of the population history of A rabia as inferred by mt DNA variation
OBJECTIVES: Genetic and archaeological research supports the theory that Arabia was the first region traversed by modern humans as they left Africa and dispersed throughout Eurasia. However, the role of Arabia from the initial migration out of Africa until more recent times is still unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have generated 379 new hypervariable segment 1 (HVS-1) sequences from a range of geographic locations throughout Yemen. We compare …
Systemic racism can get under our skin and into our genes
Special Issue - Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021 Many sociocultural factors, like poverty and trauma, or homelessness versus a safe neighborhood, can get "under our skin" and affect our lives. These factors may also get "into our genes" through epigenetic changes that influence how genes are expressed. Changes in gene expression can further influence how we respond to sociocultural factors a…
Culture modifies expectations of kinship and sex‐biased dispersal patterns: A case study of patrilineality and patrilocality in tribal yemen
Studies of the impact of post‐marital residence patterns on the distribution of genetic variation within populations have returned conflicting results. These studies have generally examined genetic diversity within and between groups with different post‐marriage residence patterns. Here, we directly examine Y chromosome microsatellite variation in individuals carrying a chromosome in the same Y haplogroup. We analyze Y chromosome data from two sa…
The social patterning of vicarious discrimination: Implications for health equity
Overall, our data show that vicarious discrimination is more common than widely understood and associated with individual-level sociodemographic characteristics that index one's position in broader social systems. The prevalence of vicarious discrimination in the absence of direct discrimination suggests that standard approaches, which measure individual exposures in isolation, are subject to misclassification bias. Our results imply that existin…
Bayesian analyses of Yemeni mitochondrial genomes suggest multiple migration events with Africa and Western Eurasia
OBJECTIVES: Anatomically, modern humans are thought to have migrated out of Africa ∼60,000 years ago in the first successful global dispersal. This initial migration may have passed through Yemen, a region that has experienced multiple migrations events with Africa and Eurasia throughout human history. We use Bayesian phylogenetics to determine how ancient and recent migrations have shaped Yemeni mitogenomic variation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We s…
Y-Chromosome Variability in Four Native American Populations from Panama
The allele and haplotype frequencies for 13 Y-chromosome short tandem repeats (STRs) [nine STR loci of the minimal Y-chromosome haplotype (DYS19 -DYS385a -DYS385b -DYS389I -DYS389II -DYS390 -DYS391 - DYS392 -DYS393) plus four additional loci (DYS388, DYS426, DYS439, DXYS156)] were determined in 99 males from 4 Panamanian native American populations, including the Chibcha-speaking Ngöbé and Kuna and the Chocóspeaking Emberá and Wounan. Fifty haplo…
DNA methylation of methylation complex genes in relation to stress and genome‐wide methylation in mother–newborn dyads
OBJECTIVES: Early life stress is known to have enduring biological effects, particularly with respect to health. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, are a possible mechanism to mediate the biological effect of stress. We previously found correlations between maternal stress, newborn birthweight, and genome-wide measures of DNA methylation. Here we investigate ten genes related to the methylation/demethylation complex in order to be…
Origin of pre-Columbian guinea pigs from Caribbean archeological sites revealed through genetic analysis
Social and Behavioral Epigenetics
Stressful social environment and financial strain drive depressive symptoms, and reveal the effects of a FKBP5 variant and male sex, in African Americans living in Tallahassee
OBJECTIVES: The World Health Organization estimates that almost 300 million people suffer from depression worldwide. African Americans are understudied for depression-related phenotypes despite widespread racial disparities. In our study of African Americans, we integrated information on psychosocial stressors with genetic variation in order to better understand how these factors associated with depressive symptoms. METHODS: Our research strategy…
Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021
Special Issue ‐ Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021
Anthropological Genetics
Over the past few decades, anthropologists have increasingly used genetic approaches in their efforts to understand humans and their primate relatives.Technological and theoretical developments in recent years have enabled anthropological geneticists to expand their field of inquiry far beyond what was thought possible even a few years ago (Crawford 2000).Most importantly, the cost of collecting large genetic data sets has dropped dramatically, a…
Analyses of Neanderthal introgression suggest that Levantine and southern Arabian populations have a shared population history
OBJECTIVES: Modern humans are thought to have interbred with Neanderthals in the Near East soon after modern humans dispersed out of Africa. This introgression event likely took place in either the Levant or southern Arabia depending on the dispersal route out of Africa that was followed. In this study, we compare Neanderthal introgression in contemporary Levantine and southern Arabian populations to investigate Neanderthal introgression and to s…
Testing support for the northern and southern dispersal routes out of Africa: An analysis of Levantine and southern Arabian populations
Objectives The Northern Dispersal Route (NDR) and Southern Dispersal Route (SDR) are hypothesized to have been used by modern humans in the dispersal out of Africa. The NDR follows the Nile into Northeast Africa and crosses the Red Sea into the Levant. The SDR emerges from the Horn of Africa and crosses the Bab el‐Mandeb into southern Arabia. In this study, we analyze genetic data from populations living along the NDR and SDR to test support for …
Anthropological Applications of Ancient DNA: Problems and Prospects
The analysis of DNA extracted from archaeological specimens to address anthropological questions is becoming increasingly common. Despite widespread interest in ancient DNA (aDNA), the difficulties inherent in aDNA analysis are not generally appreciated by researchers outside of the field. The majority of samples subjected to aDNA analysis often fail to produce results, and successful analysis is typically limited to specimens that exhibit excell…
Genetic Variation at the Mitochondrial DNA 9-bp Repeat Locus in the Sakha of Siberia
Genetic variation at the mitochondrial DNA 9-bp repeat locus was assayed in 779 Sakha from Siberia. Fourteen deletion (1.8%), nine triplication (1.2%), and two 4-repeat alleles (0.26%) were identified. Several of these alleles were also detected as heteroplasmies. Among the four heteroplasmic individuals identified (0.51%), three different combinations of repeat alleles were present: 1/2, 2/3, and 2/3/4 copies. Hypervariable region I (HVRI) seque…
Anthropological Applications of Ancient DNA: Problems and Prospects
The analysis of DNA extracted from archaeological specimens to address anthropological questions is becoming increasingly common. Despite widespread interest in ancient DNA (aDNA), the difficulties inherent in aDNA analysis are not generally appreciated by researchers outside of the field. The majority of samples subjected to aDNA analysis often fail to produce results, and successful analysis is typically limited to specimens that exhibit excell…
Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders
Native Americans derive from a small number of Asian founders who likely arrived to the Americas via Beringia. However, additional details about the initial colonization of the Americas remain unclear. To investigate the pioneering phase in the Americas we analyzed a total of 623 complete mtDNAs from the Americas and Asia, including 20 new complete mtDNAs from the Americas and seven from Asia. This sequence data was used to direct high-resolution…
Regional differences in the distribution of the sub‐Saharan, West Eurasian, and South Asian mtDNA lineages in Yemen
Despite its key location for population movements out of and back into Africa, Yemen has not yet been sampled on a regional level for an investigation of sub‐Saharan, West Eurasian, and South Asian genetic contributions. In this study, we present mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data for regionally distinct Yemeni populations that reveal different distributions of mtDNA lineages. An extensive database of mtDNA sequences from North and East African, Midd…
Y-Chromosome Variability in Four Native American Populations from Panama
The allele and haplotype frequencies for 13 Y-chromosome short tandem repeats (STRs) [nine STR loci of the minimal Y-chromosome haplotype (DYS19 -DYS385a -DYS385b -DYS389I -DYS389II -DYS390 -DYS391 - DYS392 -DYS393) plus four additional loci (DYS388, DYS426, DYS439, DXYS156)] were determined in 99 males from 4 Panamanian native American populations, including the Chibcha-speaking Ngöbé and Kuna and the Chocóspeaking Emberá and Wounan. Fifty haplo…
Out of Arabia—The settlement of Island Soqotra as revealed by mitochondrial and Y chromosome genetic diversity
The Soqotra archipelago is one of the most isolated landmasses in the world, situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden between the Horn of Africa and southern Arabia. The main island of Soqotra lies not far from the proposed southern migration route of anatomically modern humans out of Africa ∼60,000 years ago (kya), suggesting the island may harbor traces of that first dispersal. Nothing is known about the timing and origin of the first Soqotri …
Mitochondrial DNA reveals distinct evolutionary histories for Jewish populations in Yemen and Ethiopia
Southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa are important geographic centers for the study of human population history because a great deal of migration has characterized these regions since the first emergence of humans out of Africa. Analysis of Jewish groups provides a unique opportunity to investigate more recent population histories in this area. Mitochondrial DNA is used to investigate the maternal evolutionary history and can be combined with h…
Education, Genetic Ancestry, and Blood Pressure in African Americans and Whites
Objectives. We assessed the relative roles of education and genetic ancestry in predicting blood pressure (BP) within African Americans and explored the association between education and BP across racial groups. Methods. We used t tests and linear regressions to examine the associations of genetic ancestry, estimated from a genomewide set of autosomal markers, and education with BP variation among African Americans in the Family Blood Pressure Pr…
Pleistocene‐Holocene boundary in Southern Arabia from the perspective of human mtDNA variation
It is now known that several population movements have taken place at different times throughout southern Arabian prehistory. One of the principal questions under debate is if the Early Holocene peopling of southern Arabia was mainly due to input from the Levant during the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B, to the expansion of an autochthonous population, or some combination of these demographic processes. Since previous genetic studies have not been able …
Donkey Domestication
Culture modifies expectations of kinship and sex‐biased dispersal patterns: A case study of patrilineality and patrilocality in tribal yemen
Studies of the impact of post‐marital residence patterns on the distribution of genetic variation within populations have returned conflicting results. These studies have generally examined genetic diversity within and between groups with different post‐marriage residence patterns. Here, we directly examine Y chromosome microsatellite variation in individuals carrying a chromosome in the same Y haplogroup. We analyze Y chromosome data from two sa…
A biocultural study of the effects of maternal stress on mother and newborn health in the D emocratic R epublic of C ongo
The impact of stress on human health is a topic of wide‐spread relevance and one that is particularly amenable to multidisciplinary investigation. Stress impacts both our psychological and physical health and, thus, may leave evidence on our psyche, our physical body and our genome. We are interested in the effect of extreme stressors, such as war, on health from the perspective of long‐term and multigenerational effects. We integrate sociocultur…
Interaction of Alu Polymorphisms and Novel Measures of Discrimination in Association with Blood Pressure in African Americans Living in Tallahassee, Florida
African Americans are 40% more likely to be afflicted with hypertension than are non-Hispanic, white Americans, resulting in a 30% higher instance of mortality due to cardiovascular disease. There is debate about the relative contributions of genetic and sociocultural risk factors to the racial disparity in hypertension. We assayed three Alu insertion polymorphisms located in the ACE (angiotensin 1 converting enzyme), PLAT (plasminogen activator,…
Social and Behavioral Epigenetics
Anthropological Genetics
Over the past few decades, anthropologists have increasingly used genetic approaches in their efforts to understand humans and their primate relatives.Technological and theoretical developments in recent years have enabled anthropological geneticists to expand their field of inquiry far beyond what was thought possible even a few years ago (Crawford 2000).Most importantly, the cost of collecting large genetic data sets has dropped dramatically, a…
Origin of pre-Columbian guinea pigs from Caribbean archeological sites revealed through genetic analysis
Bayesian analyses of Yemeni mitochondrial genomes suggest multiple migration events with Africa and Western Eurasia
OBJECTIVES: Anatomically, modern humans are thought to have migrated out of Africa ∼60,000 years ago in the first successful global dispersal. This initial migration may have passed through Yemen, a region that has experienced multiple migrations events with Africa and Eurasia throughout human history. We use Bayesian phylogenetics to determine how ancient and recent migrations have shaped Yemeni mitogenomic variation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We s…
Comprehensive view of the population history of A rabia as inferred by mt DNA variation
OBJECTIVES: Genetic and archaeological research supports the theory that Arabia was the first region traversed by modern humans as they left Africa and dispersed throughout Eurasia. However, the role of Arabia from the initial migration out of Africa until more recent times is still unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have generated 379 new hypervariable segment 1 (HVS-1) sequences from a range of geographic locations throughout Yemen. We compare …
Early Environments, Stress, and the Epigenetics of Human Health
The field of social and behavioral epigenetics examines the role of epigenetic modifications to mediate the effect of psychosocial stressors on an individual's health and well-being. Epigenetic modifications influence gene expression, which can lead to changes in an individual's phenotype. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that varies throughout the lifespan and appears to respond to a wide range of psychosocial and biologic…
The peopling of the Americas and the origin of the Beringian occupation model
The current model for peopling of the Americas involves divergence from an ancestral Asian population followed by a period of population isolation and genetic diversification in Beringia, and finally, a rapid expansion into and throughout the Americas. Studies in the 1970s sought to characterize the biological relationships between different indigenous populations and first proposed an occupation of Beringia. More recent studies using molecular g…
Testing support for the northern and southern dispersal routes out of Africa: An analysis of Levantine and southern Arabian populations
Objectives The Northern Dispersal Route (NDR) and Southern Dispersal Route (SDR) are hypothesized to have been used by modern humans in the dispersal out of Africa. The NDR follows the Nile into Northeast Africa and crosses the Red Sea into the Levant. The SDR emerges from the Horn of Africa and crosses the Bab el‐Mandeb into southern Arabia. In this study, we analyze genetic data from populations living along the NDR and SDR to test support for …
The Emerging Field of Social and Behavioral Epigenetics
Social and behavioral epigenetics is the study of psychosocial factors that impact biology through an epigenetic mechanism. Epigenetic modifications influence the activity of genes without altering the underlying DNA sequence. DNA methylation is one type of epigenetic modification that has been widely studied and found to associate with a broad range of psychosocial stressors. This essay reviews the landmark studies and current innovations. An ev…
DNA methylation of methylation complex genes in relation to stress and genome‐wide methylation in mother–newborn dyads
OBJECTIVES: Early life stress is known to have enduring biological effects, particularly with respect to health. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, are a possible mechanism to mediate the biological effect of stress. We previously found correlations between maternal stress, newborn birthweight, and genome-wide measures of DNA methylation. Here we investigate ten genes related to the methylation/demethylation complex in order to be…
Analyses of Neanderthal introgression suggest that Levantine and southern Arabian populations have a shared population history
OBJECTIVES: Modern humans are thought to have interbred with Neanderthals in the Near East soon after modern humans dispersed out of Africa. This introgression event likely took place in either the Levant or southern Arabia depending on the dispersal route out of Africa that was followed. In this study, we compare Neanderthal introgression in contemporary Levantine and southern Arabian populations to investigate Neanderthal introgression and to s…
Data sharing in biological anthropology: Guiding principles and best practices
In 2017 the AAPA established an ad hoc committee on data access and data sharing; committee members were Trudy Turner (Chair), Connie Mulligan (Co-Chair), Doug Boyer, Eric Delson, and William Leonard. With support from a NSF grant to the association, the committee led a workshop on data sharing in biological anthropology on February 8–9, 2019 in Milwaukee, WI. Forty participants representing all aspects of the field were able to reach consensus o…
Biology (24 works) · Demography (17 works) · Gene (15 works) · Genetics (15 works) · Genetics (14 works) · Forensic and Genetic Research (13 works) · Geography (13 works) · Population (13 works) · Evolutionary biology (10 works) · Sociology (10 works)