publications

2023

1. Anthropogenic hybridization and its influence on the adaptive potential of the Sardinian wild boar (Sus scrofa meridionalis)

   Giulia Fabbri, Ludovica Molinaro, Nadia Mucci, and 2 more authors

   Journal of Applied Genetics, 2023

2022

1. Ancestral genomic contributions to complex traits in contemporary Europeans

   Davide Marnetto, Vasili Pankratov, Mayukh Mondal, and 8 more authors

   Current biology, 2022
2. Assessing temporal and geographic contacts across the Adriatic Sea through the analysis of genome-wide data from Southern Italy

   Alessandro Raveane, Ludovica Molinaro, Serena Aneli, and 8 more authors

   Genomics, 2022
3. Genomic variation in baboons from central Mozambique unveils complex evolutionary relationships with other Papio species

   Cindy Santander, Ludovica Molinaro, Giacomo Mutti, and 8 more authors

   BMC Ecology and Evolution, 2022
4. The genetic origin of Daunians and the Pan-Mediterranean southern Italian Iron Age context

   Serena Aneli, Tina Saupe, Francesco Montinaro, and 8 more authors

   Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2022
5. Ancestry deconvolution of Estonian, European and Worldwide genomic layers: a human population genomics excavation

   Ludovica Molinaro

   2022

   Abs

   Nowadays, we often assume that our modern way of life is better than the past ones, and the more we go back in time, the more the past humans struggled with poor living conditions or unperforming technologies. It is no surprise that historical and archaeological studies tackle the curiosity of many of us: with them we are forced to reshape our modern belief system and gasp before how much past populations could in fact achieve. People in the past were organised, they moved, travelled, shared ideas, cultures and technologies: and we can still find traces of their encounters. This thesis aims to look at the residual traces of past encounters through the genetic data. The encounter of populations is referred to as admixture event and creates admixed populations. With an approach called ancestry deconvolution (AD) we can analyse the genetic mosaic of an admixed group, tracing the admixing contributors and further characterise the admixing event. Within the AD approaches, there are the methods referred to as Local Ancestry Inferences (LAI) that allows to infer which ancestry falls within a given inherited locus. Such a fine level of inferences come with constraints, highly limiting the LAI tools performances in some cases. In turn, while performing LA on an admixed population characterised by worldwide ancestries we can focus on discovering unknown past demographic events, applying LA on sub-continental admixtures, such as European populations, requires a methodological approach that must be designed to comprehend the LA limitations first. Eventually, we can leverage AD and LAI to ask questions beyond the realm of demography studies. It is possible to partially predict the probability of developing a certain phenotype with the Polygenic Scores (PS). However, the vast number of variables acting upon the genome are population-specific, and the inferences are hardly transferable from one population to another, hindering the application of PS to understudied or admixed populations. I present three studies that discuss the potentialities and limits of AD and LAI. I studied an admixture event where worldwide, highly divergent populations came together; the limitations in deconvoluting fine-scale admixture events, such as in European groups; and finally I applied the built knowledge to overcome the limitations in applying Polygenic Score on admixed populations.

2021

1. A chromosome-painting-based pipeline to infer local ancestry under limited source availability

   Ludovica Molinaro, Davide Marnetto, Mayukh Mondal, and 5 more authors

   Genome Biology and Evolution, 2021
2. Ancestral contributions to contemporary European complex traits

   Davide Marnetto, Vasili Pankratov, Mayukh Mondal, and 8 more authors

   bioRxiv, 2021
3. Continental-scale genomic analysis suggests shared post-admixture adaptation in the Americas

   Linda Ongaro, Mayukh Mondal, Rodrigo Flores, and 8 more authors

   Human Molecular Genetics, 2021
4. Evaluating the impact of sex-biased genetic admixture in the Americas through the analysis of haplotype data

   Linda Ongaro, Ludovica Molinaro, Rodrigo Flores, and 8 more authors

   Genes, 2021
5. Improving selection detection with population branch statistic on admixed populations

   Burak Yelmen, Davide Marnetto, Ludovica Molinaro, and 3 more authors

   Genome biology and evolution, 2021

2020

1. Ancestry deconvolution and partial polygenic score can improve susceptibility predictions in recently admixed individuals

   Davide Marnetto, Katri Pärna, Kristi Läll, and 7 more authors

   Nature communications, 2020

2019

1. West Asian sources of the Eurasian component in Ethiopians: a reassessment

   Ludovica Molinaro, Francesco Montinaro, Burak Yelmen, and 4 more authors

   Scientific reports, 2019

2018

1. Bronze Age echoes in modern human whole genome sequences from Northeast Africa

   Ludovica Molinaro

   2018

   Abs

   Corso, Biologia Magistrale, Laurea Evoluzionistica, Biologia Dott, Relatore Pagani, Luca

2. Human evolutionary history of Eastern Africa

   Ludovica Molinaro, and Luca Pagani

   Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 2018

2016

1. Comparing genetic and linguistic diversity in Eurasia

   Ludovica Molinaro

   University of Ferrara, 2016