Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36316157›Full record

ArticleGenome research

Direct detection of natural selection in Bronze Age Britain.

Iain Mathieson, Jonathan Terhorst

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Genome research. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
50citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. The persistence and loss of hard selective sweeps amid admixture in ancient Eurasians.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  6. Global patterns of natural selection inferred using ancient DNA.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
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  7. A SNP panel for co-analysis of capture and shotgun ancient DNA data.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
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  16. Inferring fitness seascapes from evolutionary histories.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Iain MathiesonDepartment of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Jonathan TerhorstDepartment of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7765-2101

Funding

Polygenic prediction and evolution of complex traitsR35GM133708 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · PI Iain Neil Mathieson · 2019 to 2026
$2.9M
NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM133708
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We developed a novel method for efficiently estimating time-varying selection coefficients from genome-wide ancient DNA data. In simulations, our method accurately recovers selective trajectories and is robust to misspecification of population size. We applied it to a large data set of ancient and present-day human genomes from Britain and identified seven loci with genome-wide significant evidence of selection in the past 4500 yr. Almost all of them can be related to increased vitamin D or calcium levels, suggesting strong selective pressure on these or related phenotypes. However, the strength of selection on individual loci varied substantially over time, suggesting that cultural or environmental factors moderated the genetic response. Of 28 complex anthropometric and metabolic traits, skin pigmentation was the only one with significant evidence of polygenic selection, further underscoring the importance of phenotypes related to vitamin D. Our approach illustrates the power of ancient DNA to characterize selection in human populations and illuminates the recent evolutionary history of Britain.

Indexed as

DNA, AncientSelection, GeneticGenome, HumanHumansSkin PigmentationUnited KingdomDNA, Ancient

Identifiers

PMID36316157
PMCPMC9808619

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.