Publications by authors named "G Hellenthal"

Article Synopsis
  • Researchers are studying DNA in Africa to learn more about the continent’s history, but many African scientists face challenges and are often left out of these discussions.
  • A workshop called DNAirobi was held in May 2023 to help make sure African voices are included in research about African people and their past.
  • The goal is to create a better system for DNA research in Africa over the next ten years by improving communication, building partnerships, and making science more inclusive.
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Populations of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (EHPNG, area 11,157 km) lived in relative isolation from the rest of the world until the mid-20 century, and the region contains a wealth of linguistic and cultural diversity. Notably, several populations of EHPNG were devastated by an epidemic prion disease, kuru, which at its peak in the mid-twentieth century led to some villages being almost depleted of adult women. Until now, population genetic analyses to learn about genetic diversity, migration, admixture, and the impact of the kuru epidemic have been restricted to a small number of variants or samples.

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Article Synopsis
  • Metastable epialleles (MEs) are DNA regions where methylation levels vary among individuals but remain consistent across different tissues in the same person, potentially influenced by environmental factors.
  • This review covers the definition of MEs, techniques for identifying them in humans, and their genetic characteristics.
  • It also examines research connecting DNA methylation at these MEs to early environmental influences and later health outcomes.
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Genetic data contain a record of our evolutionary history. The availability of large-scale datasets of human populations from various geographic areas and timescales, coupled with advances in the computational methods to analyze these data, has transformed our ability to use genetic data to learn about our evolutionary past. Here, we review some of the widely used statistical methods to explore and characterize population relationships and history using genomic data.

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Previous studies have highlighted how African genomes have been shaped by a complex series of historical events. Despite this, genome-wide data have only been obtained from a small proportion of present-day ethnolinguistic groups. By analyzing new autosomal genetic variation data of 1333 individuals from over 150 ethnic groups from Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sudan, we demonstrate a previously underappreciated fine-scale level of genetic structure within these countries, for example, correlating with historical polities in western Cameroon.

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