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Our genomes are results of our evolutionary past, and this evolutionary history is encoded in them. However, unraveling
this information requires highly sophisticated computational and analytical tools. Using one such technique, known as coalescent
modelling, we have shown that the indigenous people of South Asia who traditionally led a non-agriculturist lifestyle, on average went
through a population bottleneck right after the invention of agriculture. In contrast, the population sizes of agriculturists, on average,
showed marked increase since the invention of agriculture. We have also been able to show that two groups of indigenous people
from east and central India, who speak in languages belonging to different language families altogether, are in fact genetically very
close. We have shown that the Nicobarese people have close genetic resemblance with the populations from south east Asia,
relative to the geographically closer Jarwa and Onge people. In this lecture I will talk about the details and intricacies of the projects
mentioned above. In addition, I will also touch upon the work I have been involved in that deals with unraveling the genomic
signatures of selection both when natural selection operates on a single region in the genome, and when a complex trait is under
selection, i.e., when multiple genomic regions are under selection. I will also briefly mention the results of another project I am
collaborating on regarding how sex-differences in human complex traits arise and is maintained in the population. |