Jaume Bertranpetit

Group website

Research Outline

Our goal is to understand our own evolutionary history. We use genomics as a tool to study the basic molecular mechanisms that have shaped our genomes. Our main interest is to understand adaptation through the detection of positive (adaptive) selection in the genome. We apply tools from network theory and systems biology to discover the genetic bases of complex adaptations. Moreover, in recent times, we have been working with the Agta, a hunter-gatherer population from the Philippines with studies of the genomes and the oral microbiome.

Research Lines

Selection projects. We have several projects analysing the footprint of positive selection in the human genome for diverse populations, including populations in Africa, SE Asia and Europe in the search and interpretation of population-specific adaptations.

Negrito Project. Thanks to a collaborative project with Andrea Migliano (University of Zurich) and other collaborators we have undertaken a major study of population genetics of several “negrito” populations, including the analysis of whole haploid human sequences.

Agta microbiome project. In a similar project, for one of the populations analysed (the Agta in the Philippines) we have collected demographic, behavioral, morphological and diet data and we are analysing the genome (SNP array) and the oral microbiome for all the individuals of the population.

Team during 2019-20

PhD students: Pablo Mirón

Postdocs: Sandra Acosta, Gabriela Aguileta, Begoña Dobón

Senior scientist: Hafid Laayouni

Selected publications 

Mayukh Mondal, Jaume Bertranpetit*, Oscar Lao*. (2019) Approximate Bayesian computation with a Deep Learning algorithm (ABC-DL) supports at least a third archaic introgression common to all Asian and Oceanian human populations. Nature Communications. 2019 Jan 16;10(1):246

Begoña Dobon, Carla Rossell, Sandra Walsh, Jaume Bertranpetit* (2019) Is there adaptation in the human genome for taste perception and phase I biotransformation? BMC Evol Biol  2019; 19(1):39. 

Jessica Nye, Mayukh Mondal, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Jaume Bertranpetit* and Hafid Laayouni (2020) A fully integrated scan of selection in the Chimpanzee genome. NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, 2020, Vol. 2, No. 3 1. 

Sandra Walsh, Luca Pagani, Yali Xue, Hafid Laayouni, Chris Tyler-Smith, Jaume Bertranpetit* (2020). Positive selection in admixed populations from Ethiopia. BMC Genetics, 2020 Oct 22;21(Suppl 1):108. 

Sandra Walsh, Mercè Izquierdo-Serra, Sandra Acosta, María Lloret, Roser Moret, Elena Bosch, Baldo Oliva, Jaume Bertranpetit*, José Manuel Fernández-Fernández*  (2020) Adaptive selection drives TRPP3 loss-of-function in an Ethiopian population  Sci Rep. 2020 Dec 2;10:20999.