The gene coding for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) is subject to positive selection by malaria in some human populations. The G6PD Aÿ allele, which is common in sub-Saharan Africa, is associated with deficient enzyme activity and protection from severe malaria. To delimit the impact of selection on patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) and nucleotide diversity, we resequenced 5.1 kb at G6PD and 2-3 kb at each of eight loci in a 2.5-Mb region roughly centered on G6PD in a diverse sub-Saharan African panel of 51 unrelated men (including 20 G6PD Aÿ, 11 G6PD A1, and 20 G6PD B chromosomes). The signature of selection is evident in the absence of genetic variation at G6PD and at three neighboring loci within 0.9 Mb from G6PD among all individuals bearing G6PD Aÿ alleles. A genomic region of 1.6 Mb around G6PD was characterized by long-range LD associated with the Aÿ alleles. These patterns of nucleotide variability and LD suggest that G6PD Aÿ is younger than previous age estimates and has increased in frequency in subSaharan Africa due to strong selection (0.1 , s , 0.2). These results also show that selection can lead to nonrandom associations among SNPs over great physical and genetic distances, even in African populations.