TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure
AU - Skoglund, Pontus
AU - Thompson, Jessica
AU - Prendergast, Mary
AU - Mittnik, Alissa
AU - Sirak, Kendra
AU - Hajdinjak, Mateja
AU - Horton, Mark
AU - Reich, David
PY - 2017/9/21
Y1 - 2017/9/21
N2 - 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 $8,100– 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.
AB - 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 $8,100– 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.
U2 - 10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.049
DO - 10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.049
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 28938123
SN - 0092-8674
VL - 171
SP - 59
EP - 71
JO - Cell
JF - Cell
ER -