Abstract
Identifying what makes us humans and understanding the genetic basis of our uniqueness are issues of interest and debate in biology. By analyzing genomic data we can detect and use the footprints that adaptive (positive) natural selection leaves in our genome to identify human adaptations at different timescales, as well as the resulting phenotypical traits that in current populations define us as humans. Although genomics has allowed us to recognize some of these adaptations from the pattern of variation expected under the classical or hard selective sweep model, the field starts to address novel approaches. These new strategies include not only methods to identify polygenic adaptations but also multidisciplinary procedures to understand the relationship between the genomic footprints of selection, the underlying functional genetic variants, the adaptive phenotype they determine, and the selective pressure that has driven each adaptation.
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Acknowledgments
This review has been possible thanks to the support of the “Dirección General de Investigación, Generalidad de Cataluña” (2017SGR702), the “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación,” and the “Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)” through the project PID2019-110933GB-E00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the “Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu” funded by the MCIN and the AEI (Doi: 10.13039/501100011033; Ref: CEX2018-000792-M).
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Bosch, E. (2022). The Adaptations That Have Made Us Human: The Genome. In: Bertranpetit, J., Peretó, J. (eds) Illuminating Human Evolution: 150 Years after Darwin. Evolutionary Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3246-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3246-5_11
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