Global patterns of sex-biased migrations in humans

TL;DR

This study uses whole Y chromosome and mtDNA data from 491 individuals to investigate sex-biased migration patterns in humans, confirming higher male migration rates at a global scale.

Contribution

It provides unbiased evidence for sex-biased migration using comprehensive genomic data, addressing previous sampling biases.

Findings

Genetic differentiation is higher for Y chromosome than mtDNA globally.

Female migration rate may be three times higher than male.

Results support sex-biased migration with more female movement.

Abstract

A series of studies have revealed the among-population components of genetic variation are higher for the paternal Y chromosome than for the maternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which indicates sex-biased migrations in human populations. However, this phenomenon might be also an ascertainment bias due to nonrandom sampling of SNPs. To eliminate the possible bias, we used the whole Y chromosome and mtDNA sequence data of 491 individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project Phase I to address the sex-biased migration dispute. We found that genetic differentiation between populations was higher for Y chromosome than for the mtDNA at global scales. The migration rate of female might be three times higher than that of male, assuming the effective population size is the same for male and female.