Department of Organismal Biology, Human Evolution, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Clinical Genetics and Genomics, Centre for Medical Genomics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 24;15(1):7307. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50733-y.
Sub-equatorial Africa is today inhabited predominantly by Bantu-speaking groups of Western African descent who brought agriculture to the Luangwa valley in eastern Zambia ~2000 years ago. Before their arrival the area was inhabited by hunter-gatherers, who in many cases were subsequently replaced, displaced or assimilated. In Zambia, we know little about the genetic affinities of these hunter-gatherers. We examine ancestry of two isolated communities in Zambia, known as BaTwa and possible descendants of recent hunter-gatherers. We genotype over two million genome-wide SNPs from two BaTwa populations (total of 80 individuals) and from three comparative farming populations to: (i) determine if the BaTwa carry genetic links to past hunter-gatherer-groups, and (ii) characterise the genetic affinities of past Zambian hunter-gatherer-groups. The BaTwa populations do harbour a hunter-gatherer-like genetic ancestry and Western African ancestry. The hunter-gatherer component is a unique local signature, intermediate between current-day Khoe-San ancestry from southern Africa and central African rainforest hunter-gatherer ancestry.
赤道非洲地区现今主要居住着操班图语的西非裔族群，他们在大约 2000 年前将农业带到了赞比亚东部的卢安瓜谷。在他们到来之前，这个地区居住着以狩猎采集为生的人，在许多情况下，这些人后来被取代、流离失所或被同化。在赞比亚，我们对这些狩猎采集者的遗传亲缘关系知之甚少。我们研究了赞比亚两个与世隔绝的社区的祖先，这两个社区分别被称为巴图瓦人和可能是最近的狩猎采集者的后裔。我们对来自两个巴图瓦人群体（共 80 人）和三个比较农业群体的两百多万个全基因组 SNPs 进行了基因分型，以：(i)确定巴图瓦人是否与过去的狩猎采集群体有遗传联系，以及 (ii) 描述过去赞比亚狩猎采集群体的遗传亲缘关系。巴图瓦人群体确实具有类似于狩猎采集者的遗传血统和西非血统。狩猎采集者的成分是一种独特的本地特征，介于来自南部非洲的现今科伊桑人和中非雨林狩猎采集者的祖先之间。
