Rosalind M. Harding

TL;DR: Reappraising mtDNA control region sequences from aboriginal Siberians and Native Americans confirms in agreement with linguistic, archaeological and climatic evidence that the major wave of migration brought one population, ancestral to the Amerinds, from northeastern Siberia to America 20,000-25,000 years ago.

TL;DR: It is argued that malaria selection has operated relatively recently on human populations (within the last 5000 years) and the present distribution of haemoglobinopathies is seen as the result of selection elevating sporadic mutations in local populations.

TL;DR: Patterns of beta-globin diversity suggest extensive worldwide late Pleistocene gene flow and are not easily reconciled with a unidirectional migration out of Africa 100,000 years ago and total replacement of archaic populations in Asia.

TL;DR: A large and ethnically well-defined Mandenka sample from eastern Senegal was analyzed for the polymorphism of the β-globin gene cluster, showing the presence of four transversions, five transitions, and a composite microsatellite polymorphism.

TL;DR: It is shown how for each disease it is possible to recognize a pattern of regionally specific mutations that is best explained as the result of selection, and it is concluded that although this combination of molecular and population genetics is successful when applied to the study of haemoglobinopathies, it may not be so easy to apply it to theStudy of other genetic diseases.