Genome-wide scans for signals of selection have become a routine part of the analysis of population genomic variation datasets and have resulted in compelling evidence of selection during recent human evolution. This Essay spotlights methodological innovations that have enabled the detection of selection over very recent timescales, even in contemporary human populations. By harnessing large-scale genomic and phenotypic datasets, these new methods use different strategies to uncover connections between genotype, phenotype, and fitness. This Essay outlines the rationale and key findings of each strategy, discusses challenges in interpretation, and describes opportunities to improve detection and understanding of ongoing selection in human populations.
Copyright: © 2024 Ziyue Gao. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.