In 1962 the term "molecular anthropology" came in light. Molecular Anthropology is combination of Molecular biology and Anthropology. Molecular anthropology uses the tools and techniques of molecular genetics to address the questions drawn from biological Anthropology, especially in relation to the human existence, interrelations of human populations, gene environment interactions and other aspects of nonhuman phylogenetic relationships. It uses method like DNA analysis to know the phenomenon of human origin, process of human migration and natural selection during human evolution and also the impression of specific cultural practices on patterns of human genetic variation.
Molecular anthropology has broad applications in the field of evolutionary biology forensic science, and disease analysis. Investigation of data on the basis of human genetic variability, at both DNA and protein level is used to explore the evolutionary history of populations of different geographical locations. Eg. Relationship between Neanderthal and human has been estimated through ancient DNA studies from fossil finds. Keys of human evolution have been achieved through the knowledge of diverse advance techniques of molecular techniques. Many new thoughts and techniques of molecular biology have been introduced in the field of molecular anthropology to know about the human variation, gene flow, genetic distance and all these are attained with the help of molecular markers such as mitochondrial DNA markers, autosomal markers, Y – chromosome DNA markers etc. and through other advance molecular techniques such as DNA- DNA hybridization, polymerase chain reaction etc. Although the field of molecular anthropology is not new, but in India advancement in molecular anthropology is slow basically because of lack of resources and infrastructure.
The panel seek to examine the potential significance and challenges of molecular biology in decades to come, which will be of interest to all biological anthropologist as well as palaentologists and evolotutionarly biologist.
