The peopling of the African continent and the diaspora into the new world

Abstract

Africa is the birthplace of anatomically modern humans, and is the geographic origin of human migration across the globe within the last 100,000 years. The history of African populations has consisted of a number of demographic events that have influenced patterns of genetic and phenotypic variation across the continent. With the increasing amount of genomic data and corresponding developments in computational methods, researchers are able to explore long-standing evolutionary questions, expanding our understanding of human history within and outside of Africa. This review will summarize some of the recent findings regarding African demographic history, including the African Diaspora, and will briefly explore their implications for disease susceptibility in populations of African descent.

Direct estimate of the spontaneous germ line mutation rate in African green monkeys

“…As a result, the history of African green monkey populations reflects a similar pattern than those of the peopling of the African continent (see Campbell et al. for an in‐depth review). The split of C. a. aethiops from the other four populations around 164–195 kya resembles the divergence estimate for the earliest population split in the modern human lineage on the African continent (i.e., between the ancestors of Khoesan‐speaking San hunter‐gatherers and other sub‐Saharan Africans >100 kya (Schuster et al.…”

Co‐evolution of MHC class I and variable NK cell receptors in placental mammals

“…The modern human species originated in East Africa approximately 200 000 years ago and subsequently extended its range throughout the African continent. Some 75 000 years ago , modern humans began to migrate out of Africa and gradually extended the human range to include all the continents, except Antarctica, and many of the offshore and oceanic islands.…”

Living in an adaptive world: Genomic dissection of the genus Homo and its immune response

“…2). African populations present the highest levels of diversity worldwide, and the diversity of non-African populations decreases with increasing distance from Africa (Abecasis et al, 2010, 2012; Campbell et al, 2014), attesting to the occurrence of bottlenecks and founder events during their migrations across the globe (Jakobsson et al, 2008; Henn et al, 2012). Recent studies based on whole-genome sequencing have shown that all contemporary non-Africans are descended from a single population that left Africa less than 60,000 yr ago (Malaspinas et al, 2016; Mallick et al, 2016).…”

“…Genetic studies have also revealed substantial population structure (i.e., subdivision) within continents. In sub-Saharan Africa, population structure is correlated with geography, language family, and mode of subsistence (Henn et al, 2012; Campbell et al, 2014; Patin et al, 2014), whereas, in Europe, genetic diversity is strongly driven by geography, and population structure is detectable within even very small geographic areas (Novembre et al, 2008). The quantification of population structure has important implications for studies of disease, as it must be carefully controlled for in genome-wide association studies (GWAS).…”