The genetic prehistory of southern Africa.
Southern and eastern African populations that speak non-Bantu languages with click consonants are known to harbour some of the most ancient genetic lineages in humans, but their relationships are poorly understood. Here, we report data from 23 populations analysed at over half a million single-nucleotide polymorphisms, using a genome-wide array designed for studying human history. The southern African Khoisan fall into two genetic groups, loosely corresponding to the northwestern and southeastern Kalahari, which we show separated within the last 30,000 years. We find that all individuals derive at least a few percent of their genomes from admixture with non-Khoisan populations that began ∼1,200 years ago. In addition, the East African Hadza and Sandawe derive a fraction of their ancestry from admixture with a population related to the Khoisan, supporting the hypothesis of an ancient link between southern and eastern Africa.
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. joseph_pickrell@hms.harvard.edu
Joseph K
JK
Pickrell
Nick
N
Patterson
Chiara
C
Barbieri
Falko
F
Berthold
Linda
L
Gerlach
Tom
T
Güldemann
Blesswell
B
Kure
Sununguko Wata
SW
Mpoloka
Hirosi
H
Nakagawa
Christfried
C
Naumann
Mark
M
Lipson
Po-Ru
PR
Loh
Joseph
J
Lachance
Joanna
J
Mountain
Carlos D
CD
Bustamante
Bonnie
B
Berger
Sarah A
SA
Tishkoff
Brenna M
BM
Henn
Mark
M
Stoneking
David
D
Reich
Brigitte
B
Pakendorf
D000353:Africa, Southern; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D005788:Gene Pool; D005828:Genetics, Population / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium / Q000235:genetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011157:Population Dynamics