Archaeogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Letenská 1, 118 01 Prague, Czech Republic.
Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, 128 01 Prague, Czech Republic.
Genes (Basel). 2022 Mar 17;13(3):533. doi: 10.3390/genes13030533.
African history has been significantly influenced by the Sahara, which has represented a barrier for migrations of all living beings, including humans. Major exceptions were the gene flow events that took place between North African and sub-Saharan populations during the so-called African Humid Periods, especially in the Early Holocene (11.5 to 5.5 thousand years ago), and more recently in connection with trans-Saharan commercial routes. In this study, we describe mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity of human populations from both sides of the Sahara Desert, i.e., both from North Africa and the Sahel/Savannah belt. The final dataset of 7213 mtDNA sequences from 134 African populations encompasses 470 newly collected and 6743 previously published samples, which were analyzed using descriptive methods and Bayesian statistics. We completely sequenced 26 mtDNAs from sub-Saharan samples belonging to the Eurasian haplogroup N1. Analyses of these N1 mitogenomes revealed their possible routes to the Sahel, mostly via Bab el-Mandab. Our results indicate that maternal gene flow must have been important in this circum-Saharan space, not only within North Africa and the Sahel/Savannah belt but also between these two regions.
非洲历史深受撒哈拉沙漠的影响，撒哈拉沙漠是所有生物（包括人类）迁徙的障碍。主要的例外是在所谓的非洲湿润期（11500 至 5500 年前）期间，北非和撒哈拉以南地区之间发生的基因流动事件，最近与跨撒哈拉商业路线有关。在这项研究中，我们描述了撒哈拉沙漠两侧的人类群体的线粒体 DNA（mtDNA）多样性，即北非和萨赫勒/稀树草原带的人类群体。来自 134 个非洲人群的 7213 个 mtDNA 序列的最终数据集包含 470 个新收集的和 6743 个先前发表的样本，这些样本使用描述性方法和贝叶斯统计进行了分析。我们对属于欧亚单倍群 N1 的 26 个撒哈拉以南样本的 mtDNA 进行了完全测序。对这些 N1 线粒体基因组的分析表明，它们可能通过 Bab el-Mandab 到达萨赫勒地区。我们的研究结果表明，母系基因流在这个环绕撒哈拉的地区一定很重要，不仅在北非和萨赫勒/稀树草原带之间，而且在这两个地区之间。
