Fig. 2
From: One pedigree we all may have come from – did Adam and Eve have the chromosome 2 fusion?
A suggested gorilla-like [46] polygamous pedigree of a putative early modern human clan in which HSA2 was transmitted, implemented, and its heterozygous status converted to homozygous. A male carrier of a de novo heterozygous HSA2 (half filled square, IInd generation), had multiple children (IIIrd generation) with a few female partners. Analogous to carriers of Robertsonian translocations, he is expected to have had healthy progeny with balanced 48 (blank square/circle) and 47 (half filled square/circle) chromosomes in addition to multiple miscarriages due to chromosomal imbalances (filled triangles). Note that the unions between individuals with 47 chromosomes heterozygous for HSA2 likely produced healthy children with balanced 48 and 47 chromosomes as well as heathy subjects with 46 chromosomes (homozygous for HSA2, IVth generation). The latter individuals are expected to have had an unaffected fecundity when inbreeding with carriers of balanced 46 chromosomes homozygous for HSA2. The evolutionary advantage might have resulted from an enhanced fertility e.g. due to testis-expressed DDX11L2. Alternatively, assortative mating between individuals with higher cognitive functions due to genomic loss (heterozygous or homozygous) of gene(s) important for brain development or function might have facilitated the successful spreading of HSA2