3 documents found, page 1 of 1
Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and N...
Patin, E; Lopez, M; Grollemund, R; Verdu, P; Harmant, C; Quach, H; Laval, G; Perry, GH; Barreiro, LB; Froment, A; Heyer, E; Massougbodji, ABantu languages are spoken by about 310 million Africans, yet the genetic history of Bantu-speaking populations remains largely unexplored. We generated genomic data for 1318 individuals from 35 populations in western central Africa, where Bantu languages originated. We found that early Bantu speakers first moved southward, through the equatorial rainforest, before spreading toward eastern and southern Africa. ...
The dawn of human matrilineal diversity
Behar, DM; Villems, R; Soodyall, H; Blue-Smith, J; Pereira, L; Metspalu, E; Scozzari, R; Makkan, H; Tzur, S; Comas, D; Bertranpetit, JThe quest to explain demographic history during the early part of human evolution has been limited because of the scarce paleoanthropological record from the Middle Stone Age. To shed light on the structure of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) phylogeny at the dawn of Homo sapiens, we constructed a matrilineal tree composed of 624 complete mtDNA genomes from sub-Saharan Hg L lineages. We paid particular attention t...
The Matrilineal Ancestry of Ashkenazi Jewry: Portrait of a Recent Founder Event
Behar, DM; Metspalu, E; Kivisild, T; Achilli, A; Hadid, Y; Tzur, S; Pereira, L; Amorim, A; Quintana-Murci, L; Majamaa, K; Herrnstadt, C; Howell, NBoth the extent and location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Here, using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we show that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only 4 women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important excepti...