Post by seekeroftruth on Feb 21, 2014 19:58:46 GMT -5
Linking the sub-Saharan and West Eurasian gene pools: maternal and paternal heritage of the Tuareg nomads from the African Sahel
Luísa Pereira1,2, Viktor Černý3, María Cerezo4, Nuno M Silva1, Martin Hájek3, Alžběta Vašíková5, Martina Kujanová6, Radim Brdička5 and Antonio Salas4
1Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto (IPATIMUP), Porto, Portugal
2Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
3Archaeogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, The Czech Republic
4Unidade de Xenética, Departamento de Anatomía Patolóxica e Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Instituto de Medicina Legal, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
5Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, The Czech Republic
6Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, The Czech Republic
Correspondence: Dr V Černý, Archaeogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Letenska 4, 118 01, Prague 1, The Czech Republic. Tel: +420 2570 14304; Fax: +420 2575 32288; E-mail: cerny@aup.cas.cz
Received 21 July 2009; Revised 15 January 2010; Accepted 20 January 2010; Published online 17 March 2010.
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Abstract
The Tuareg presently live in the Sahara and the Sahel. Their ancestors are commonly believed to be the Garamantes of the Libyan Fezzan, ever since it was suggested by authors of antiquity. Biological evidence, based on classical genetic markers, however, indicates kinship with the Beja of Eastern Sudan. Our study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and Y chromosome SNPs of three different southern Tuareg groups from Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger reveals a West Eurasian-North African composition of their gene pool. The data show that certain genetic lineages could not have been introduced into this population earlier than ~9000 years ago whereas local expansions establish a minimal date at around 3000 years ago. Some of the mtDNA haplogroups observed in the Tuareg population were involved in the post-Last Glacial Maximum human expansion from Iberian refugia towards both Europe and North Africa. Interestingly, no Near Eastern mtDNA lineages connected with the Neolithic expansion have been observed in our population sample. On the other hand, the Y chromosome SNPs data show that the paternal lineages can very probably be traced to the Near Eastern Neolithic demic expansion towards North Africa, a period that is otherwise concordant with the above-mentioned mtDNA expansion. The time frame for the migration of the Tuareg towards the African Sahel belt overlaps that of early Holocene climatic changes across the Sahara (from the optimal greening ~10 000 YBP to the extant aridity beginning at ~6000 YBP) and the migrations of other African nomadic peoples in the area.
Keywords:
Tuareg; genetic diversity; phylogeography
Full Paper
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987384/
Paper in PDF
www.nature.com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/ejhg/journal/v18/n8/pdf/ejhg201021a.pdf
Luísa Pereira1,2, Viktor Černý3, María Cerezo4, Nuno M Silva1, Martin Hájek3, Alžběta Vašíková5, Martina Kujanová6, Radim Brdička5 and Antonio Salas4
1Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto (IPATIMUP), Porto, Portugal
2Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
3Archaeogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, The Czech Republic
4Unidade de Xenética, Departamento de Anatomía Patolóxica e Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Instituto de Medicina Legal, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
5Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, The Czech Republic
6Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, The Czech Republic
Correspondence: Dr V Černý, Archaeogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Letenska 4, 118 01, Prague 1, The Czech Republic. Tel: +420 2570 14304; Fax: +420 2575 32288; E-mail: cerny@aup.cas.cz
Received 21 July 2009; Revised 15 January 2010; Accepted 20 January 2010; Published online 17 March 2010.
Top of page
Abstract
The Tuareg presently live in the Sahara and the Sahel. Their ancestors are commonly believed to be the Garamantes of the Libyan Fezzan, ever since it was suggested by authors of antiquity. Biological evidence, based on classical genetic markers, however, indicates kinship with the Beja of Eastern Sudan. Our study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and Y chromosome SNPs of three different southern Tuareg groups from Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger reveals a West Eurasian-North African composition of their gene pool. The data show that certain genetic lineages could not have been introduced into this population earlier than ~9000 years ago whereas local expansions establish a minimal date at around 3000 years ago. Some of the mtDNA haplogroups observed in the Tuareg population were involved in the post-Last Glacial Maximum human expansion from Iberian refugia towards both Europe and North Africa. Interestingly, no Near Eastern mtDNA lineages connected with the Neolithic expansion have been observed in our population sample. On the other hand, the Y chromosome SNPs data show that the paternal lineages can very probably be traced to the Near Eastern Neolithic demic expansion towards North Africa, a period that is otherwise concordant with the above-mentioned mtDNA expansion. The time frame for the migration of the Tuareg towards the African Sahel belt overlaps that of early Holocene climatic changes across the Sahara (from the optimal greening ~10 000 YBP to the extant aridity beginning at ~6000 YBP) and the migrations of other African nomadic peoples in the area.
Keywords:
Tuareg; genetic diversity; phylogeography
Full Paper
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987384/
Paper in PDF
www.nature.com.ezproxy.rowan.edu/ejhg/journal/v18/n8/pdf/ejhg201021a.pdf