Description

ABSTRACT It is often taken for granted that the human
species is divided in rather homogeneous groups or races,
among which biological differences are large. Studies of allele
frequencies do not support this view, but they have not been
sufficient to rule it out either. We analyzed human molecular
diversity at 109 DNA markers, namely 30 microsatellite loci
and 79 polymorphic restriction sites (restriction fragment
length polymorphism loci) in 16 populations of the world. By
partitioning genetic variances at three hierarchical levels of
population subdivision, we found that differences between
members of the same population account for 84.4% of the
total, which is in excellent agreement with estimates based on
allele frequencies of classic, protein polymorphisms. Genetic
variation remains high even within small population groups.
On the average, microsatellite and restriction fragment length
polymorphism loci yield identical estimates. Differences
among continents represent roughly 1y10 of human molecular
diversity, which does not suggest that the racial subdivision of
our species ref lects any major discontinuity in our genome