title: Bight of Benin: a Maternal Perspective of Four Beninese Populations and their Genetic Implications on the American Populations of African Ancestry.
abstract: The understanding of the first movements of the ancestral populations within the African continent is still unclear, particularly in West Africa, due to several factors that have shaped the African genetic pool across time. To improve the genetic representativeness of the Beninese population and to better understand the patterns of human settlement inside West Africa and the dynamics of peopling of the Democratic Republic of Benin, we analyzed the maternal genetic variation of 193 Beninese individuals belonging to Bariba, Berba, Dendi, and Fon populations. Results support the oral traditions indicating that the western neighbouring populations have been the ancestors of the first Beninese populations, and the extant genetic structure of the Beninese populations is most likely the result of admixture between populations from neighbouring countries and native people. The present findings highlight how the Beninese populations contributed to the gene pool of the extant populations of some American populations of African ancestry. This strengthens the hypothesis that the Bight of Benin was not only an assembly point for the slave trade during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade but also an important slave trapping area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Primativo
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Pathology, Center for Archaeological Sciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.|Laboratory of Forensic Genetics and Molecular Archaeology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ottoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, Public Health, Life and Environment, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biondi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.|Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, University of Rome Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Serafino
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez-Labarga
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Pathology, Center for Archaeological Sciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.|Department of Biology, Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Maarten H D
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Larmuseau
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Pathology, Center for Archaeological Sciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.|Laboratory of Forensic Genetics and Molecular Archaeology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ronny
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Decorte
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rickards
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000235:genetics; D001541:Benin; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D063947:Enslavement; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Benin; L2 haplogroup; Slave Trade; West Africa; mtDNA complete sequences