Laboratoire d'Anthropogénétique, Départment de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Chouaïb Doukkali, El Jadida, Morocco.
BMC Evol Biol. 2010 May 10;10:138. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-10-138.
A proportion of 1/4 to 1/2 of North African female pool is made of typical sub-Saharan lineages, in higher frequencies as geographic proximity to sub-Saharan Africa increases. The Sahara was a strong geographical barrier against gene flow, at least since 5,000 years ago, when desertification affected a larger region, but the Arab trans-Saharan slave trade could have facilitate enormously this migration of lineages. Till now, the genetic consequences of these forced trans-Saharan movements of people have not been ascertained.
The distribution of the main L haplogroups in North Africa clearly reflects the known trans-Saharan slave routes: West is dominated by L1b, L2b, L2c, L2d, L3b and L3d; the Center by L3e and some L3f and L3w; the East by L0a, L3h, L3i, L3x and, in common with the Center, L3f and L3w; while, L2a is almost everywhere. Ages for the haplogroups observed in both sides of the Saharan desert testify the recent origin (holocenic) of these haplogroups in sub-Saharan Africa, claiming a recent introduction in North Africa, further strengthened by the no detection of local expansions.
The interpolation analyses and complete sequencing of present mtDNA sub-Saharan lineages observed in North Africa support the genetic impact of recent trans-Saharan migrations, namely the slave trade initiated by the Arab conquest of North Africa in the seventh century. Sub-Saharan people did not leave traces in the North African maternal gene pool for the time of its settlement, some 40,000 years ago.
四分之一到一半的北非女性群体是典型的撒哈拉以南血统，随着与撒哈拉以南非洲的地理距离越来越近，其频率也越来越高。撒哈拉沙漠是基因流动的一个强大地理屏障，至少从 5000 年前沙漠化影响到更大的地区以来就是如此，但阿拉伯跨撒哈拉奴隶贸易可能极大地促进了这些血统的迁移。到目前为止，这些被迫跨撒哈拉人口迁移的遗传后果尚未确定。
北非主要 L 单倍群的分布清楚地反映了已知的跨撒哈拉奴隶贸易路线：西部以 L1b、L2b、L2c、L2d、L3b 和 L3d 为主；中部以 L3e 和一些 L3f 和 L3w 为主；东部以 L0a、L3h、L3i、L3x 和与中部相同的 L3f 和 L3w 为主；而 L2a 几乎无处不在。在撒哈拉沙漠两侧观察到的单倍群的年龄证明了这些单倍群在撒哈拉以南非洲的近期起源（全新世），声称它们在北非的近期引入，由于没有检测到局部扩张而得到进一步加强。
对在北非观察到的撒哈拉以南现有的 mtDNA 血统进行插值分析和完整测序，支持了最近跨撒哈拉迁移的遗传影响，即始于 7 世纪阿拉伯征服北非的奴隶贸易。撒哈拉以南地区的人在其定居的 4 万年前并没有在北非母系基因库中留下痕迹。
