Outreach + Highlights
The AGP laboratory conducts research on the diversity and biological evolution of human populations, with the main objective of reconstructing the history of world settlement since the origin of Homo sapiens.
Cryptic Biological Invasions: a General Model of Hybridization
The dispersal of non-native genes due to hybridization is a form of cryptic invasion with growing concern in evolution and conservation.
Genetic history of the African Sahelian populations
In collaboration with two other European research groups, the two laboratories of the Anthropology Unit, AGP and APA have just published a Review paper on the Genetic history of the African Sahelian population.
HLA-B molecular variation and its links with malaria in Africa
The group of Alicia Sanchez-Mazas identified two HLA-B alleles as candidates to Plasmodium falciparum malaria protection in Africa.
HLA class I molecular variation and peptide-binding properties suggest a model of joint divergent asymmetric selection
The main function of HLA class I molecules is to present pathogen-derived peptides to cytotoxic T lymphocytes. This function is assumed to drive the maintenance of an extraordinary amount of polymorphism at each HLA locus, providing an immune advantage to heterozygote individuals capable to present larger repertories of peptides than homozygotes.
Variation in NAT2 acetylation phenotypes is associated with differences in food-producing subsistence modes and ecoregions in Africa
Dietary changes associated to shifts in subsistence strategies during human evolution may have induced new selective pressures on phenotypes, as currently held for lactase persistence. Similar hypotheses exist for arylamine N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) mediated acetylation capacity, a well-known pharmacogenetic trait with wide inter-individual variation explained by polymorphisms in the NAT2 gene.
Computer simulation of human leukocyte antigen genes supports two main routes of colonization by human populations in East Asia
Recent genetic studies have suggested that the colonization of East Asia by modern humans was more complex than a single origin from the South, and that a genetic contribution via a Northern route was probably quite substantial.
Upper palaeolithic genomes reveal deep roots of modern eurasians
We extend the scope of European palaeogenomics by sequencing the genomes of Late Upper Palaeolithic (13,300 years old, 1.4-fold coverage) and Mesolithic (9,700 years old, 15.4-fold) males from western Georgia in the Caucasus and a Late Upper Palaeolithic (13,700 years old, 9.5-fold) male from Switzerland.
HLA supertype variation across populations: new insights into the role of natural selection in the evolution of HLA-A and HLA-B polymorphisms
Supertypes are groups of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles which bind overlapping sets of peptides due to sharing specific residues at the anchor positions—the B and F pockets—of the peptide-binding region (PBR).