W. Amos

Eusocial evolution without a nest: kin structure of social aphids forming open colonies on bamboo

The paper compares kin structure and genetic relatedness in eusocial and non-eusocial aphid colonies on bamboo, finding that eusocial colonies are more genetically homogenized, suggesting ecological factors favor eusociality.

Decomposing the admixture statistic, D, suggests a negligible contribution due to archaic introgression into humans.

The paper decomposes the admixture statistic D and finds that introgression from Neanderthals contributes negligibly to the signal, instead attributing it to higher mutation rates in Africa.

A test of the hypothesis that variable mutation rates create signals that have previously been interpreted as evidence of archaic introgression into humans.

This paper tests the hypothesis that variable mutation rates, not archaic introgression, explain signals of Neanderthal DNA in non-African humans by analyzing rare human-specific variants.

Statistics used to infer inter-breeding between humans and Neanderthals are strongly predicted by flanking sequence heterozygosity.

The paper shows that a genetic statistic used to detect ancient human-Neanderthal interbreeding is influenced by flanking sequence heterozygosity rather than actual introgression.

Signatures of introgression across the allele frequency spectrum

This paper introduces DFS, an extension of the D statistic, to detect introgression by analyzing allele frequency spectra, showing it provides novel insights into timing and direction of introgression.

mtDNA-based reconstructions of change in effective population sizes of Holarctic birds do not agree with their reconstructed range sizes based on paleoclimates

The paper uses mitochondrial DNA and bioclimatic models to compare changes in effective population size and range size in Holarctic birds, finding no correlation between the two.

Differential base-sharing between humans and Neanderthals: inter-breeding or greater mutability in heterozygotes?

The paper examines how mutation rate and heterozygosity affect estimates of Neanderthal introgression by analyzing base-sharing and heterozygosity differences across populations.