New online interative genetic atlas should help historians

Scientists have crated a comprehensive online interactive atlas tracking mankind’s divers genetic history through centuries of colonization, migration, slavery, war, and trade. Researchers on Thursday, Feb. 13revealed in a paper published in the journal Science that they had put together the first online interactive atlas detailing mankind’s 4,000 years of genetic mixing among 95 populations during 100 historical events. The goal of this effort was to provide new sources of information for historians

Humans all have the same genes. However, their genomes mutate. Different DNA sequences are passed down through generations and distinguish major populations from each other. The interactive atlas details DNA mixtures from interbreeding between population groups in Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America. Ongoing events like the Mongol empire incursions led by Genghis Khan, the Bantu expansion into Southern Africa, Arab slave trade, and European colonialism mixed and matched group DNA producing genetic changes.

The genetic atlas was the brainchild of a team led by Garrett Hellenthal of University College London, Daniel Falush, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and Simon Myers of Oxford University. They sampled human genomes from around the globe and determined 95 separate populations could be distinguished.