High frequency haplotypes are expected events, not historical figures

Guillot, Elsa G.; Guillot, Elsa; Cox, Murray P.

Abstract

Cultural transmission of reproductive success states that successful men have more children and pass this raised fecundity to their offspring. Balaresque and colleagues found high frequency haplotypes in a Central Asian Y chromosome dataset, which they attribute to cultural transmission of reproductive success by prominent historical men, including Genghis Khan. Using coalescent simulation, we show that these high frequency haplotypes are consistent with a neutral model, where they commonly appear simply by chance. Hence, explanations invoking cultural transmission of reproductive success are statistically unnecessary.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Publication Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 28, 2018
• Journal: F1000Research
• Electronic ISSN: 2046-1402
• Publisher: F1000Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7023.2
• Keywords: high frequency, haplotypes, expected events, historical figures
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/914182
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7023.2
• Contract Date: Feb 28, 2018