The genomic analysis of current-day North African populations reveals the existence of trans-Saharan migrations with different origins and dates

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  • dc.contributor.author Lucas Sánchez, Marcel
  • dc.contributor.author Fadhlaoui-Zid, Karima
  • dc.contributor.author Comas, David, 1969-
  • dc.date.accessioned 2023-01-16T07:34:46Z
  • dc.date.available 2023-01-16T07:34:46Z
  • dc.date.issued 2023
  • dc.description.abstract The Sahara Desert has acted as a barrier to human gene-flow between the northern and central parts of Africa since its aridification. Nonetheless, some contacts between both sides of the desert have occurred throughout history, mainly driven by commercial activity. Part of this was the infamous trans-Saharan slave trade, which forcedly brought peoples from south of the Sahara to North Africa from Roman times until the nineteenth century. Although historical records exist, the genetic aspects of these trans-Saharan migrations have not been deeply studied. In the present study, we assess the genetic influence of trans-Saharan migrations in current-day North Africa and characterize its amount, geographical origin, and dates. We confirm the heterogeneous and generally low-frequency presence of genomic segments of sub-Saharan origin in present-day North Africans acquired in recent historical times, and we show evidence of at least two admixture events: one dated around the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries CE between North Africans and a Western-sub-Saharan-like source similar to current-day Senegambian populations, and another one dated around the seventeenth century CE involving Tunisians and an Eastern-sub-Saharan-like source related to current-day south-Sudan and Kenyan populations. Time and location coincide with the peak of trans-Saharan slave-trade activity between Western African empires and North African powers, and are also concordant with the possibility of continuous recent south-to-north gene-flow. These findings confirm the trans-Saharan human genetic contacts, providing new and precise evidence about its possible dates and geographical origins, which are pivotal to understanding the genomic composition of an underrepresented region such as North Africa.
  • dc.description.sponsorship Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MCIU) and the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) [PID2019-106485 GB-I00/AEI/1.0.13039/501100011033]; and “Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu” [AEI, CEX2018-000792-M]. ML-S was supported by an FPI-MINECO PRE2018-084178 fellowship.
  • dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
  • dc.identifier.citation Lucas-Sánchez M, Fadhlaoui-Zid K, Comas D. The genomic analysis of current-day North African populations reveals the existence of trans-Saharan migrations with different origins and dates. Hum Genet. 2023 Feb;142(2):305-20. DOI: 10.1007/s00439-022-02503-3
  • dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00439-022-02503-3
  • dc.identifier.issn 0340-6717
  • dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55279
  • dc.language.iso eng
  • dc.publisher Springer
  • dc.relation.ispartof Hum Genet. 2023 Feb;142(2):305-20
  • dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/PID2019-106485GB-I00
  • dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/PRE2018-084178
  • dc.rights © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
  • dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  • dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • dc.title The genomic analysis of current-day North African populations reveals the existence of trans-Saharan migrations with different origins and dates
  • dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
  • dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

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