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Hammarén R, Goldstein ST, Schlebusch CM. Eurasian back-migration into Northeast Africa was a complex and multifaceted process. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0290423. [PMID: 37939042 PMCID: PMC10631636 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have identified Northeast Africa as an important area for human movements during the Holocene. Eurasian populations have moved back into Northeastern Africa and contributed to the genetic composition of its people. By gathering the largest reference dataset to date of Northeast, North, and East African as well as Middle Eastern populations, we give new depth to our knowledge of Northeast African demographic history. By employing local ancestry methods, we isolated the Non-African parts of modern-day Northeast African genomes and identified the best putative source populations. Egyptians and Sudanese Copts bore most similarities to Levantine populations whilst other populations in the region generally had predominantly genetic contributions from the Arabian peninsula rather than Levantine populations for their Non-African genetic component. We also date admixture events and investigated which factors influenced the date of admixture and find that major linguistic families were associated with the date of Eurasian admixture. Taken as a whole we detect complex patterns of admixture and diverse origins of Eurasian admixture in Northeast African populations of today.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rickard Hammarén
- Human Evolution, Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Steven T. Goldstein
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Carina M. Schlebusch
- Human Evolution, Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
- SciLifeLab, Uppsala, Sweden
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Bird N, Ormond L, Awah P, Caldwell EF, Connell B, Elamin M, Fadlelmola FM, Matthew Fomine FL, López S, MacEachern S, Moñino Y, Morris S, Näsänen-Gilmore P, Nketsia V NK, Veeramah K, Weale ME, Zeitlyn D, Thomas MG, Bradman N, Hellenthal G. Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eabq2616. [PMID: 36989356 PMCID: PMC10058250 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq2616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nancy Bird
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Genetics Institute (UGI), University College London, London, UK
| | - Louise Ormond
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Genetics Institute (UGI), University College London, London, UK
| | - Paschal Awah
- Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon
| | | | - Bruce Connell
- Linguistics and Language Studies Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Faisal M. Fadlelmola
- Kush Centre for Genomics and Biomedical Informatics, Biotechnology Perspectives Organisation, Khartoum, Sudan
| | | | | | - Scott MacEachern
- Division of Social Science, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, China
| | | | - Sam Morris
- Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Pieta Näsänen-Gilmore
- Tampere Centre for Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health Research: Global Health Group, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
- Department for Health Promotion, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Krishna Veeramah
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | | | - David Zeitlyn
- School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Mark G. Thomas
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Genetics Institute (UGI), University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Garrett Hellenthal
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Genetics Institute (UGI), University College London, London, UK
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