title: Genome-Wide SNP Analysis of Southern African Populations Provides New Insights into the Dispersal of Bantu-Speaking Groups.
abstract: The expansion of Bantu-speaking agropastoralist populations had a great impact on the genetic, linguistic, and cultural variation of sub-Saharan Africa. It is generally accepted that Bantu languages originated in an area around the present border between Cameroon and Nigeria approximately 5,000 years ago, from where they spread South and East becoming the largest African linguistic branch. The demic consequences of this event are reflected in the relatively high genetic homogeneity observed across most of sub-Saharan Africa populations. In this work, we explored genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data from 28 populations to characterize the genetic components present in sub-Saharan African populations. Combining novel data from four Southern African populations with previously published results, we reject the hypothesis that the "non-Bantu" genetic component reported in South-Eastern Africa (Mozambique) reflects extensive gene flow between incoming agriculturalist and resident hunter-gatherer communities. We alternatively suggest that this novel component is the result of demographic dynamics associated with the Bantu dispersal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González-Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Institute of Legal Medicine, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Montinaro
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.
authors.forename: Ockie
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Oosthuizen
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Oosthuizen
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: George B J
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Busby
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Anagnostou
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Destro-Bisol
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pascali
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom cristian.capelli@zoo.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Capelli
mesh_terms: D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D051456:Gene Flow; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
keywords: Bantu speakers; Southern Africa; admixture; genome-wide SNPs