RT Journal
A1 Mathieson, Iain
A1 Terhorst, Jonathan
T1 Direct detection of natural selection in Bronze Age Britain
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2022 
FD November 01 
VO 32 
IS 11-12 
SP 2057 
OP 2067 
DO 10.1101/gr.276862.122 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/32/11-12/2057.abstract 
AB 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.