Signatures of human European Paleolithic expansion shown by resequencing of non-recombining X-chromosome segments

Human genetic diversity in Europe has been extensively studied using uniparentally-inherited sequences (mitochondrial DNA [mtDNA] and the Y chromosome), which reveal very different patterns indicating sex-specific demographic histories. The X chromosome, haploid in males and inherited twice as often from mothers as from fathers, could provide insights into past female behaviours, but has not been extensively investigated. Here, we use HapMap SNP data to identify segments of the X chromosome in which recombination is historically absent and mutations are likely to be the only source of genetic variation, referring to these as Phylogeographically informative Haplotypes on Autosomes and X chrom