Skip to main content

Amy Goldberg

David M. Goodner Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology
Evolutionary Anthropology

Selected Publications


Localizing Post-Admixture Adaptive Variants with Object Detection on Ancestry-Painted Chromosomes.

Journal Article Molecular biology and evolution · April 2023 Gene flow between previously differentiated populations during the founding of an admixed or hybrid population has the potential to introduce adaptive alleles into the new population. If the adaptive allele is common in one source population, but not the o ... Full text Cite

Sex-biased admixture and assortative mating shape genetic variation and influence demographic inference in admixed Cabo Verdeans.

Journal Article G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · September 2022 Genetic data can provide insights into population history, but first, we must understand the patterns that complex histories leave in genomes. Here, we consider the admixed human population of Cabo Verde to understand the patterns of genetic variation left ... Full text Cite

Human genetic admixture through the lens of population genomics.

Journal Article Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · June 2022 Over the past 50 years, geneticists have made great strides in understanding how our species' evolutionary history gave rise to current patterns of human genetic diversity classically summarized by Lewontin in his 1972 paper, 'The Apportionment of Human Di ... Full text Cite

Primate malarias as a model for cross-species parasite transmission.

Journal Article eLife · January 2022 Parasites regularly switch into new host species, representing a disease burden and conservation risk to the hosts. The distribution of these parasites also gives insight into characteristics of ecological networks and genetic mechanisms of host-parasite i ... Full text Open Access Cite

Human-Mediated Admixture and Selection Shape the Diversity on the Modern Swine (Sus scrofa) Y Chromosomes.

Journal Article Molecular biology and evolution · October 2021 Throughout its distribution across Eurasia, domestic pig (Sus scrofa) populations have acquired differences through natural and artificial selection, and have often interbred. We resequenced 80 Eurasian pigs from nine different Asian and European breeds; w ... Full text Cite

Skin deep: The decoupling of genetic admixture levels from phenotypes that differed between source populations.

Journal Article American journal of physical anthropology · June 2021 ObjectivesIn genetic admixture processes, source groups for an admixed population possess distinct patterns of genotype and phenotype at the onset of admixture. Particularly in the context of recent and ongoing admixture, such differences are some ... Full text Cite

Human genetic admixture.

Journal Article PLoS genetics · March 2021 Throughout human history, large-scale migrations have facilitated the formation of populations with ancestry from multiple previously separated populations. This process leads to subsequent shuffling of genetic ancestry through recombination, producing var ... Full text Cite

Rapid adaptation to malaria facilitated by admixture in the human population of Cabo Verde.

Journal Article eLife · January 2021 Featured Publication Humans have undergone large migrations over the past hundreds to thousands of years, exposing ourselves to new environments and selective pressures. Yet, evidence of ongoing or recent selection in humans is difficult to detect. Many of these migrations als ... Full text Cite

How Do Interventions Impact Malaria Dynamics Between Neighboring Countries? A Case Study with Botswana and Zimbabwe

Chapter · January 1, 2021 Malaria is a vector-borne disease that is responsible for over 400,000 deaths per year. Although countries around the world have taken measures to decrease the incidence of malaria, many regions remain endemic. Indeed, progress towards elimination has stal ... Full text Cite

Assortative mating by population of origin in a mechanistic model of admixture.

Journal Article Theoretical population biology · August 2020 Featured Publication Populations whose mating pairs have levels of similarity in phenotypes or genotypes that differ systematically from the level expected under random mating are described as experiencing assortative mating. Excess similarity in mating pairs is termed positiv ... Full text Cite

7000 years of turnover: historical contingency and human niche construction shape the Caribbean's Anthropocene biota.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · May 2020 Featured Publication The human-mediated movement of species across biogeographic boundaries-whether intentional or accidental-is dramatically reshaping the modern world. Yet humans have been reshaping ecosystems and translocating species for millennia, and acknowledging the de ... Full text Cite

Rapid adaptation to malaria facilitated by admixture in the human population of Cabo Verde

Journal Article · 2020 Humans have undergone large migrations over the past hundreds to thousands of years, exposing ourselves to new environments and selective pressures. Yet, evidence of ongoing or recent selection in humans is difficult to detect. Many of these migrations als ... Full text Cite

Sex-biased admixture and assortative mating shape genetic variation and influence demographic inference in admixed Cabo Verdeans

Journal Article · 2020 Featured Publication Genetic data can provide insights into population history, but first we must understand the patterns that complex histories leave in genomes. Here, we consider the admixed human population of Cabo Verde to understand the patterns of genetic variation left ... Full text Cite

Coalescent Theory of Migration Network Motifs.

Journal Article Molecular biology and evolution · October 2019 Natural populations display a variety of spatial arrangements, each potentially with a distinctive impact on genetic diversity and genetic differentiation among subpopulations. Although the spatial arrangement of populations can lead to intricate migration ... Full text Cite

Assortative mating and the dynamical decoupling of genetic admixture levels from phenotypes that differ between source populations

Journal Article · September 20, 2019 Abstract Source populations for an admixed population can possess distinct patterns of genotype and pheno-type at the beginning of the admixture process. Such differences are sometimes taken to serve as markers of ancestry—that is, phenotypes that are init ... Full text Cite

Assortative mating by population of origin in a mechanistic model of admixture

Journal Article · August 21, 2019 Abstract Populations whose mating pairs have levels of similarity in phenotypes or genotypes that differ systematically from the level expected under random mating are described as experiencing assortative mating. Excess similarity in mating pairs is terme ... Full text Cite

Sex-biased admixture and geographic mating structure shape genomic variation in Cape Verde

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 1, 2019 Link to item Cite

Localizing Post-Admixture Adaptive Variants with Object Detection on Ancestry-Painted Chromosomes.

Journal Article Molecular biology and evolution · April 2023 Gene flow between previously differentiated populations during the founding of an admixed or hybrid population has the potential to introduce adaptive alleles into the new population. If the adaptive allele is common in one source population, but not the o ... Full text Cite

Sex-biased admixture and assortative mating shape genetic variation and influence demographic inference in admixed Cabo Verdeans.

Journal Article G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · September 2022 Genetic data can provide insights into population history, but first, we must understand the patterns that complex histories leave in genomes. Here, we consider the admixed human population of Cabo Verde to understand the patterns of genetic variation left ... Full text Cite

Human genetic admixture through the lens of population genomics.

Journal Article Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · June 2022 Over the past 50 years, geneticists have made great strides in understanding how our species' evolutionary history gave rise to current patterns of human genetic diversity classically summarized by Lewontin in his 1972 paper, 'The Apportionment of Human Di ... Full text Cite

Primate malarias as a model for cross-species parasite transmission.

Journal Article eLife · January 2022 Parasites regularly switch into new host species, representing a disease burden and conservation risk to the hosts. The distribution of these parasites also gives insight into characteristics of ecological networks and genetic mechanisms of host-parasite i ... Full text Open Access Cite

Human-Mediated Admixture and Selection Shape the Diversity on the Modern Swine (Sus scrofa) Y Chromosomes.

Journal Article Molecular biology and evolution · October 2021 Throughout its distribution across Eurasia, domestic pig (Sus scrofa) populations have acquired differences through natural and artificial selection, and have often interbred. We resequenced 80 Eurasian pigs from nine different Asian and European breeds; w ... Full text Cite

Skin deep: The decoupling of genetic admixture levels from phenotypes that differed between source populations.

Journal Article American journal of physical anthropology · June 2021 ObjectivesIn genetic admixture processes, source groups for an admixed population possess distinct patterns of genotype and phenotype at the onset of admixture. Particularly in the context of recent and ongoing admixture, such differences are some ... Full text Cite

Human genetic admixture.

Journal Article PLoS genetics · March 2021 Throughout human history, large-scale migrations have facilitated the formation of populations with ancestry from multiple previously separated populations. This process leads to subsequent shuffling of genetic ancestry through recombination, producing var ... Full text Cite

Rapid adaptation to malaria facilitated by admixture in the human population of Cabo Verde.

Journal Article eLife · January 2021 Featured Publication Humans have undergone large migrations over the past hundreds to thousands of years, exposing ourselves to new environments and selective pressures. Yet, evidence of ongoing or recent selection in humans is difficult to detect. Many of these migrations als ... Full text Cite

How Do Interventions Impact Malaria Dynamics Between Neighboring Countries? A Case Study with Botswana and Zimbabwe

Chapter · January 1, 2021 Malaria is a vector-borne disease that is responsible for over 400,000 deaths per year. Although countries around the world have taken measures to decrease the incidence of malaria, many regions remain endemic. Indeed, progress towards elimination has stal ... Full text Cite

Assortative mating by population of origin in a mechanistic model of admixture.

Journal Article Theoretical population biology · August 2020 Featured Publication Populations whose mating pairs have levels of similarity in phenotypes or genotypes that differ systematically from the level expected under random mating are described as experiencing assortative mating. Excess similarity in mating pairs is termed positiv ... Full text Cite

7000 years of turnover: historical contingency and human niche construction shape the Caribbean's Anthropocene biota.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · May 2020 Featured Publication The human-mediated movement of species across biogeographic boundaries-whether intentional or accidental-is dramatically reshaping the modern world. Yet humans have been reshaping ecosystems and translocating species for millennia, and acknowledging the de ... Full text Cite

Rapid adaptation to malaria facilitated by admixture in the human population of Cabo Verde

Journal Article · 2020 Humans have undergone large migrations over the past hundreds to thousands of years, exposing ourselves to new environments and selective pressures. Yet, evidence of ongoing or recent selection in humans is difficult to detect. Many of these migrations als ... Full text Cite

Sex-biased admixture and assortative mating shape genetic variation and influence demographic inference in admixed Cabo Verdeans

Journal Article · 2020 Featured Publication Genetic data can provide insights into population history, but first we must understand the patterns that complex histories leave in genomes. Here, we consider the admixed human population of Cabo Verde to understand the patterns of genetic variation left ... Full text Cite

Coalescent Theory of Migration Network Motifs.

Journal Article Molecular biology and evolution · October 2019 Natural populations display a variety of spatial arrangements, each potentially with a distinctive impact on genetic diversity and genetic differentiation among subpopulations. Although the spatial arrangement of populations can lead to intricate migration ... Full text Cite

Assortative mating and the dynamical decoupling of genetic admixture levels from phenotypes that differ between source populations

Journal Article · September 20, 2019 Abstract Source populations for an admixed population can possess distinct patterns of genotype and pheno-type at the beginning of the admixture process. Such differences are sometimes taken to serve as markers of ancestry—that is, phenotypes that are init ... Full text Cite

Assortative mating by population of origin in a mechanistic model of admixture

Journal Article · August 21, 2019 Abstract Populations whose mating pairs have levels of similarity in phenotypes or genotypes that differ systematically from the level expected under random mating are described as experiencing assortative mating. Excess similarity in mating pairs is terme ... Full text Cite

Sex-biased admixture and geographic mating structure shape genomic variation in Cape Verde

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · March 1, 2019 Link to item Cite

How do interventions impact malaria dynamics between neighboring countries? A case study with Botswana and Zimbabwe

Journal Article · 2019 Malaria is a vector-borne disease that is responsible for over 400,000 deaths per year. Although countries around the world have taken measures to decrease the incidence of malaria, many regions remain endemic. Indeed, progress towards elimination has stal ... Full text Cite

137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes.

Journal Article Nature · May 2018 For thousands of years the Eurasian steppes have been a centre of human migrations and cultural change. Here we sequence the genomes of 137 ancient humans (about 1× average coverage), covering a period of 4,000 years, to understand the population history o ... Full text Cite

Reply to Lazaridis and Reich: Robust model-based inference of male-biased admixture during Bronze Age migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · May 2017 Full text Cite

Ancient X chromosomes reveal contrasting sex bias in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasian migrations.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · March 2017 Featured Publication Dramatic events in human prehistory, such as the spread of agriculture to Europe from Anatolia and the late Neolithic/Bronze Age migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, can be investigated using patterns of genetic variation among the people who lived in ... Full text Cite

Better together: Thinking anthropologically about genetics.

Journal Article American journal of physical anthropology · August 2016 What are the effects that genetics has had on Anthropological research and how can we think anthropologically about Genetics? Just as genetic data have encouraged new hypotheses about human phenotypic variation, evolutionary history, population interaction ... Full text Cite

Post-invasion demography of prehistoric humans in South America.

Journal Article Nature · April 2016 Featured Publication As the last habitable continent colonized by humans, the site of multiple domestication hotspots, and the location of the largest Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, South America is central to human prehistory. Yet remarkably little is known about human po ... Full text Open Access Cite

Consanguinity Rates Predict Long Runs of Homozygosity in Jewish Populations.

Journal Article Human heredity · January 2016 ObjectivesRecent studies have highlighted the potential of analyses of genomic sharing to produce insight into the demographic processes affecting human populations. We study runs of homozygosity (ROH) in 18 Jewish populations, examining these gro ... Full text Cite

Beyond 2/3 and 1/3: The Complex Signatures of Sex-Biased Admixture on the X Chromosome.

Journal Article Genetics · September 2015 Sex-biased demography, in which parameters governing migration and population size differ between females and males, has been studied through comparisons of X chromosomes, which are inherited sex-specifically, and autosomes, which are not. A common form of ... Full text Cite

Beyond 2/3 and 1/3: the complex signatures of sex-biased admixture on the X chromosome

Journal Article · March 14, 2015 Featured Publication Sex-biased demography, in which parameters governing migration and population size differ between females and males, has been studied through comparisons of X chromosomes, which are inherited sex-specifically, and autosomes, which are not. A common form of ... Full text Cite

Autosomal admixture levels are informative about sex bias in admixed populations.

Journal Article Genetics · November 2014 Sex-biased admixture has been observed in a wide variety of admixed populations. Genetic variation in sex chromosomes and functions of quantities computed from sex chromosomes and autosomes have often been examined to infer patterns of sex-biased admixture ... Full text Cite