Seminar by Prof. Martin Kuhlwilm from University of Vienna
30 October 2026
KST 14:00
The Seminar is being held in Room 1010 (Jasmin) – Integrated mechanical engineering building. Click here for the campus map.
Admixture from other hominin groups such as Neanderthals and Denisovans has played an important role in shaping the genetic diversity among human populations. Meanwhile, genomic characterization of present-day human populations carrying genetic diversity not present elsewhere, such as the Khoe-San populations of Southern Africa and Central African rainforest hunter-gatherers, is key to understanding our evolutionary history as humans. Using methods that do not require genomes from a source population, we analysed high-coverage genomes from these populations for traces of archaic admixture, finding that a model with introgression from an unsampled source population into the ancestors of Khoe-San populations best explains their patterns of variation. Introgressed genomic fragments reveal the landscape of introgression in this population, with possible influence on functions related to traits such as sensory perception.