Genetic Admixture

Genetic admixture plays a fundamental role in a species such as Homo sapiens, which has colonized the world on a relatively small evolutionary time scale, and has gone through complex migratory patterns in modern times. Several statistical methods exploiting different aspects of the genetic variation of admixed populations have been proposed. In this article, we describe the main consequences of genetic admixture for genetic variability, both in autosomal and paternally and maternally linked markers, introduce the state-of-the-art in methods for studying genetic admixture/genetic ancestry, and provide two key examples of genetic admixture in human populations: the human diaspora out of the African continent and the patterns of admixture in the American continent following Columbus' discovery.

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