An exploratory analysis of combined genome-wide SNP data from several recent studies

TL;DR

This study explores the potential of combining genome-wide SNP data from multiple studies to infer human population history, demonstrating that even limited SNPs can produce historically coherent insights.

Contribution

It introduces a method for integrating diverse SNP datasets to analyze human population structure and history, highlighting the potential for cross-study data synthesis.

Findings

Combined SNP data can reveal ancient migration events.

Results align with historical and linguistic evidence.

Cross-study data confrontation can generate new hypotheses.

Abstract

The usefulness of a `total-evidence' approach to human population genetics was assessed through a clustering analysis of combined genome-wide SNP datasets. The combination contained only 3146 SNPs. Detailed examination of the results nonetheless enables the extraction of relevant clues about the history of human populations, some pertaining to events as ancient as the first migration out of Africa. The results are mostly coherent with what is known from history, linguistics, and previous genetic analyses. These promising results suggest that cross-studies data confrontation have the potential to yield interesting new hypotheses about human population history.