Primativo Giuseppina, Ottoni Claudio, Biondi Gianfranco, Serafino Sara, Martínez-Labarga Cristina, Larmuseau Maarten H D, Scardi Michele, Decorte Ronny, Rickards Olga
Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
Department of Imaging and Pathology, Center for Archaeological Sciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Ann Hum Genet. 2017 Mar;81(2):78-90. doi: 10.1111/ahg.12186.
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.
由于长期以来塑造非洲基因库的若干因素，对非洲大陆内祖先群体最初迁移情况的了解仍不明确，尤其是在西非地区。为提高贝宁人群的基因代表性，并更好地了解西非内部人类定居模式以及贝宁民主共和国的人口迁移动态，我们分析了193名来自巴里巴、贝尔巴、丹迪和芳族群体的贝宁个体的母系基因变异。结果支持了口述传统，表明西部相邻群体是最早的贝宁人群的祖先，而贝宁人群现存的基因结构很可能是邻国人群与当地人混合的结果。目前的研究结果突出了贝宁人群如何对一些有非洲血统的美国现存人群的基因库做出贡献。这强化了这样一种假设，即贝宁湾不仅是跨大西洋奴隶贸易期间奴隶贸易的集散地，也是一个重要的奴隶捕获地区。
