Recombination Gives a New Insight in the Effective Population Size and the History of the Old World Human Populations

The information left by recombination in our genomes can be used to make inferences on our recent evolutionary history. Specifically, the number of past recombination events in a population sample is a function of its effective population size (N(e)). We have applied a method, Identifying Recombination in Sequences (IRiS), to detect specific past recombination events in 30 Old World populations to infer their N(e). We have found that sub-Saharan African populations have an N(e) that is approximately four times greater than those of non-African populations and that outside of Africa, South Asian populations had the largest N(e). We also observe that the patterns of recombinational diversity of these populations correlate with distance out of Africa if that distance is measured along a path crossing South Arabia. No such correlation is found through a Sinai route, suggesting that anatomically modern humans first left Africa through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait rather than through present Egypt.