Linking the sub-Saharan and West Eurasian gene pools: maternal and paternal heritage of the Tuareg nomads from the African Sahel - PubMed (original) (raw)

Linking the sub-Saharan and West Eurasian gene pools: maternal and paternal heritage of the Tuareg nomads from the African Sahel

Luísa Pereira et al. Eur J Hum Genet. 2010 Aug.

Abstract

The Tuareg presently live in the Sahara and the Sahel. Their ancestors are commonly believed to be the Garamantes of the Libyan Fezzan, ever since it was suggested by authors of antiquity. Biological evidence, based on classical genetic markers, however, indicates kinship with the Beja of Eastern Sudan. Our study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and Y chromosome SNPs of three different southern Tuareg groups from Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger reveals a West Eurasian-North African composition of their gene pool. The data show that certain genetic lineages could not have been introduced into this population earlier than approximately 9000 years ago whereas local expansions establish a minimal date at around 3000 years ago. Some of the mtDNA haplogroups observed in the Tuareg population were involved in the post-Last Glacial Maximum human expansion from Iberian refugia towards both Europe and North Africa. Interestingly, no Near Eastern mtDNA lineages connected with the Neolithic expansion have been observed in our population sample. On the other hand, the Y chromosome SNPs data show that the paternal lineages can very probably be traced to the Near Eastern Neolithic demic expansion towards North Africa, a period that is otherwise concordant with the above-mentioned mtDNA expansion. The time frame for the migration of the Tuareg towards the African Sahel belt overlaps that of early Holocene climatic changes across the Sahara (from the optimal greening approximately 10 000 YBP to the extant aridity beginning at approximately 6000 YBP) and the migrations of other African nomadic peoples in the area.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

The geographical location of southern Tuareg populations, including the ones studied here: TTan in the Republic of Niger, TGor in Burkina Faso and TGos in Mali.

Figure 2

Figure 2

MDS plot of _F_ST genetic distances calculated from HVS-I mtDNA sequences. For numbers see Supplementary Material SM1.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Phylogeny of the complete M1a2a mtDNA sequences, including the ones from Tuaregs and the published so far. Integers represent transitions, and an upper case suffix indicates a transition while a lower case suffix indicates a transversion. Deletions are indicated by a ‘del' following the deleted nucleotide position. Underlined nucleotide positions appear more than once in the tree.

Figure 4

Figure 4

MDS plot of _F_ST distances calculated from NRY haplogroup frequencies. Codes for numbers are as in Supplementary Material SM2.

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