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Originally posted by DD'eDeN:
Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa
and North America
Etienne Patin cs 2017
Science 356:543-6
doi 10.1126/science.aal1988

Bantu languages are spoken by c 310 M Africans, yet
the genetic history of Bantu-speaking populations remains largely
unexplored.
We generated genomic data for 1318 individuals from 35 populations in
W-C.Africa (where Bantu languages originated):
- early Bantu speakers first moved south-ward, through the equatorial
rain-forest,
- then spread toward E- & S-Africa.
- genetic adaptation of Bantu speakers was facilitated by admixture with
local populations (esp. the HLA & LCT loci).
We identified a major contribution of W-C.African Bantu speakers to the
ancestry of African Americans, whose genomes present no strong signals of
natural selection.
Together, these results highlight the contribution of Bantu-speaking
peoples to the complex genetic history of Africans & African Americans.
___

On the history of Bantu speakers

Africans are underrepresented in many surveys of genetic diversity,
this hinders our ability to study human evolution & the health of modern
populations.
Patin cs examined the genetic diversity of Bantu speakers (1/3 of
sub-Saharan Africans).
They then modeled the timing of migration & admixture during the Bantu
expansion.
This revealed adaptive introgression of genes that likely originated in
other African populations (e.g. specific immune-related genes).
Applying this information to African Americans suggests that gene-flow
from Africa into the Americas was more complex than previously thought.
<http://science.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aal1988>

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