Inferences of African evolutionary history from genomic data.
Africa is the origin of anatomically modern humans and a continent of linguistic, cultural, environmental, phenotypic, and genetic diversity. However, African populations remain underrepresented in genetic studies, which have largely focused on individuals with European and Asian ancestry. The expansion of high-throughput 'omic' technologies to interrogate multiple tissue types across many biomolecules-DNA, proteins, epigenetic modifications, metabolites, and others-has heralded a new era of investigation into African history. In this review, we summarize how some of these recent advances have been applied to contemporary sub-Saharan African populations to inform studies on human origins and adaptation.
Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Marcia Holsbach
MH
Beltrame
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Meagan A
MA
Rubel
Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: tishkoff@mail.med.upenn.edu.
Sarah A
SA
Tishkoff
D000349:Africa; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny