Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure

Skoglund, Pontus, Thompson, Jessica, Prendergast, Mary, Mittnik, Alissa, Sirak, Kendra, Hajdinjak, Mateja, Horton, Mark and Reich, David (2017) Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure. Cell, 171. pp. 59-71.

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Abstract

We assembled genome-wide data from 16 prehis- toric Africans. We show that the anciently divergent lineage that comprises the primary ancestry of the southern African San had a wider distribution in the past, contributing approximately two-thirds of the ancestry of Malawi hunter-gatherers 2,500 years ago and approximately one-third of the ancestry of Tanzanian hunter-gatherers 1,400 years ago. We document how the spread of farmers from western Africa involved complete replacement of local hunter-gatherers in some regions, and we track the spread of herders by showing that the population of a 3,100-year-old pastoralist from Tanzania contributed ancestry to people from north- eastern to southern Africa, including a 1,200-year- old southern African pastoralist. The deepest diversi- fications of African lineages were complex, involving either repeated gene flow among geographically disparate groups or a lineage more deeply diverging than that of the San contributing more to some west- ern African populations than to others. We finally leverage ancient genomes to document episodes of natural selection in southern African populations.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Africa, adaptation, ancient DNA, hunter-gatherers, natural selection, population genetics, population history.
Divisions:	Cultural Heritage Institute
Depositing User:	Professor Mark Horton
Date Deposited:	23 Oct 2024 12:20
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2024 12:20
URI:	https://rau.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/16258

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