Journal article
Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture
- Abstract:
- Previous studies have highlighted how African genomes have been shaped by a complex series of historical events. Despite this, genome-wide data have only been obtained from a small proportion of present-day ethnolinguistic groups. By analyzing new autosomal genetic variation data of 1333 individuals from over 150 ethnic groups from Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sudan, we demonstrate a previously underappreciated fine-scale level of genetic structure within these countries, for example, correlating with historical polities in western Cameroon. By comparing genetic variation patterns among populations, we infer that many northern Cameroonian and Sudanese groups share genetic links with multiple geographically disparate populations, likely resulting from long-distance migrations. In Ghana and Nigeria, we infer signatures of intermixing dated to over 2000 years ago, corresponding to reports of environmental transformations possibly related to climate change. We also infer recent intermixing signals in multiple African populations, including Congolese, that likely relate to the expansions of Bantu language–speaking peoples.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.3MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1126/sciadv.abq2616
Authors
- Publisher:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Journal:
- Science Advances More from this journal
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 13
- Article number:
- eabq2616
- Place of publication:
- United States
- Publication date:
- 2023-03-29
- Acceptance date:
- 2023-02-27
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2375-2548
- Pmid:
-
36989356
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1336259
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1336259
- Deposit date:
-
2023-08-08
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Bird et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- © 2023 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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