Human genetic clustering

Not to be confused with Gene cluster, Metabolic gene cluster, or Cluster genealogy.

Human genetic clustering refers to patterns of relative genetic similarity among human individuals and populations, as well as the wide range of scientific and statistical methods used to study this aspect of human genetic variation.

Clustering studies are thought to be valuable for characterizing the general structure of genetic variation among human populations, to contribute to the study of ancestral origins, evolutionary history, and precision medicine. Since the mapping of the human genome, and with the availability of increasingly powerful analytic tools, cluster analyses have revealed a range of ancestral and migratory trends among human populations and individuals.[1] Human genetic clusters tend to be organized by geographic ancestry, with divisions between clusters aligning largely with geographic barriers such as oceans or mountain ranges.[2][3] Clustering studies have been applied to global populations,[4] as well as to population subsets like post-colonial North America.[5][6] Notably, the practice of defining clusters among modern human populations is largely arbitrary and variable due to the continuous nature of human genotypes; although individual genetic markers can be used to produce smaller groups, there are no models that produce completely distinct subgroups when larger numbers of genetic markers are used.[2][7][8]

Many studies of human genetic clustering have been implicated in discussions of race, ethnicity, and scientific racism, as some have controversially suggested that genetically derived clusters may be understood as proof of genetically determined races.[9][10] Although cluster analyses invariably organize humans (or groups of humans) into subgroups, debate is ongoing on how to interpret these genetic clusters with respect to race and its social and phenotypic features. And, because there is such a small fraction of genetic variation between human genotypes overall, genetic clustering approaches are highly dependent on the sampled data, genetic markers, and statistical methods applied to their construction.

  1. ^ Novembre, John; Ramachandran, Sohini (2011-09-22). "Perspectives on Human Population Structure at the Cusp of the Sequencing Era". Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. 12 (1): 245–274. doi:10.1146/annurev-genom-090810-183123. ISSN 1527-8204. PMID 21801023.
  2. ^ a b Maglo, Koffi N.; Mersha, Tesfaye B.; Martin, Lisa J. (2016-02-17). "Population Genomics and the Statistical Values of Race: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Biological Classification of Human Populations and Implications for Clinical Genetic Epidemiological Research". Frontiers in Genetics. 7: 22. doi:10.3389/fgene.2016.00022. ISSN 1664-8021. PMC 4756148. PMID 26925096.
  3. ^ Goodman, Alan H.; Moses, Yolanda T.; Jones, Joseph L., eds. (2012-10-29). Race. doi:10.1002/9781118233023. ISBN 9781118233023.
  4. ^ Rosenberg, N. A. (2002-12-20). "Genetic Structure of Human Populations". Science. 298 (5602): 2381–2385. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.2381R. doi:10.1126/science.1078311. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 12493913. S2CID 8127224.
  5. ^ Han, Eunjung; Carbonetto, Peter; Curtis, Ross E.; Wang, Yong; Granka, Julie M.; Byrnes, Jake; Noto, Keith; Kermany, Amir R.; Myres, Natalie M.; Barber, Mathew J.; Rand, Kristin A. (2017-02-07). "Clustering of 770,000 genomes reveals post-colonial population structure of North America". Nature Communications. 8 (1): 14238. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814238H. doi:10.1038/ncomms14238. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 5309710. PMID 28169989.
  6. ^ Jordan, I. King; Rishishwar, Lavanya; Conley, Andrew B. (September 2019). "Native American admixture recapitulates population-specific migration and settlement of the continental United States". PLOS Genetics. 15 (9): e1008225. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1008225. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 6756731. PMID 31545791.
  7. ^ Bamshad, Michael J.; Olson, Steve E. (December 2003). "Does Race Exist?". Scientific American. 289 (6): 78–85. Bibcode:2003SciAm.289f..78B. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1203-78. ISSN 0036-8733. PMID 14631734.
  8. ^ Kalinowski, S T (2010-08-04). "The computer program STRUCTURE does not reliably identify the main genetic clusters within species: simulations and implications for human population structure". Heredity. 106 (4): 625–632. doi:10.1038/hdy.2010.95. ISSN 0018-067X. PMC 3183908. PMID 20683484.
  9. ^ Jorde, Lynn B; Wooding, Stephen P (2004-10-26). "Genetic variation, classification and 'race'". Nature Genetics. 36 (S11): S28–S33. doi:10.1038/ng1435. ISSN 1061-4036. PMID 15508000.
  10. ^ Marks, Jonathan (27 February 2017). Is science racist?. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7456-8925-8. OCLC 1037867598.